


Money Can't Buy You Everything

by imdrowninginfootwear



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 21:11:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 28,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10749900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imdrowninginfootwear/pseuds/imdrowninginfootwear
Summary: Klaus Morgan is a famous actor who has just arrived in Mystic Falls for mysterious reasons. All of the girls in town seem to want him and will do almost anything to get his attention. Too bad the one girl that he's interested in can't stand him...





	1. Chapter 1

"Klaus Morgan," Bonnie said in awe as she saw him walk into the Mystic Grill behind her.

"Can we not talk about him for five minutes?" Caroline asked exasperatedly. "The guy isn't even a good actor. Personally I'm glad that he got kicked off of the show. I mean the only reason that he was there was to look hot."

A tilted smirk formed on Klaus's lips as he leaned forward to whisper into the blonde girl's ear.

"I know he's so overrated right?" Klaus whispered arrogantly.

Caroline's head whipped around and she froze in shock at the sight of him.

"Oh and by the way I chose to leave the show," Klaus told her as his smirk widened at the sight of her reaction. "They were just going to pay me to look hot and act poorly forever."

With that Klaus turned to walk away, leaving Caroline sitting there like a deer in the headlights.

"Smooth, Care," Elena said with a little laugh.

"Well how the hell was I supposed to know that Bonnie meant that he was standing right behind me?" Caroline defended as she turned back around with a giant blush on her cheeks.

"What's he even doing here?" Bonnie asked as she stared over at him.

"I don't know," Elena responded. "But is it just me or is he even hotter in person?"

"Believe me, it is not just you," Caroline told her as she risked turning to look over at him again.

* * *

When Rebekah Mikaelson turned around to spot her brother, she instantly jumped up out of her seat excitedly.

"Nik!" She said as she pulled him into a big hug.

Klaus grinned as he hugged her back.

* * *

"What is he doing hugging _Rebekah_?" Caroline asked as she watched the scene. "And why did she just call him 'Nik'?"

Caroline and Rebekah didn't exactly get along with each other. Ever since Rebekah had moved to town the year before, the two girls had been in constant competition with each other over basically everything. The girls hated each other and were as close to enemies as you could find in the real world.

Caroline watched in disgust as Rebekah threw herself at him.

"Maybe they know each other," Elena suggested.

"You think that Rebekah knows _Klaus Morgan_ and failed to bring that up before now?" Caroline asked in disbelief.

"Well it would help explain what the hell he's doing here if he knows her," Bonnie pointed out.

* * *

Klaus noticed that the entire table where the girl that he had heard talking about him sat was staring at him. He smirked over at the blonde girl and refused to look away until she embarrassedly dropped her gaze.

"Nik, please tell me that you don't like Caroline Forbes of all people," Rebekah begged. "You've seen her for two seconds, choose someone else."

"Who says that I like her?" Klaus asked, turning back to face his sister. "I just like watching her squirm... I take it that you didn't tell people here that you're my sister."

"No," Rebekah responded. "I wanted to be normal instead of having a bunch of fake girls trying to be friends with me just because they like you."

"Well apparently you changed your mind," Klaus pointed out to her.

"No, I just already know who's my friend and who's just a bitch," Rebekah explained, turning to look at Caroline as she said the last part. "And it's not like I was going to tell you not to come just because of all of your little fangirls in town. I hardly even get to see you anymore."

"I know," Klaus told her. "And if you think that you're going to have to deal with a bunch of fake girls, then you wouldn't be able to imagine what I have to put up with."

"Right… You lead such a difficult life, Nik," She said sarcastically. "I feel _so_ sorry for you."

"As you should, sister," Klaus responded.

"Hold on," One brave girl who had just walked over from a nearby table of staring girls spoke up. "Did you just say 'sister'?"

"I believe I did," Klaus told her with a tilted grin.

"So you're his sister?" The girl excitedly asked Rebekah before turning her attention back towards the actor. "I never knew that... Does that mean that you're staying here for a while?"

"As a matter of fact I'm staying here indefinitely," Klaus told her with a dazzling smile that caused the girl to look down at her feet shyly. "So I guess that there's a pretty good chance that I could end up seeing you around town regularly."

Rebekah resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes as she watched her brother flirt with the flustered girl. At least he had taken his attention off of Caroline though.

"I guess so," The girl agreed nervously.

"Where are my manners?" Klaus asked her. "Let me buy you a drink."

"I'm going home, Nik," Rebekah told him, not feeling the need to stand around and third wheel as her brother hit on girls. "I'll see you later."

"Hold on," Klaus said as he temporarily turned his attention back towards his sister. "Do I at least get an address of where you live or am I just supposed to guess where I'm staying?"

"I'm sure that you can find somewhere else to sleep tonight," Rebekah pointed out to her brother with a smirk. "…Here."

Rebekah pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and wrote the address down before handing it to her brother. No one in town really knew where Rebekah lived since she only had one real friend. Rebekah wanted to keep it that way instead of telling Klaus where she lived out loud so that half of the girls in the Grill could show up later looking for him.

Klaus slipped the piece of paper into the pocket of his jeans before turning his attention back towards the girl that he was flirting with.

* * *

The next day at school everybody was talking about Klaus and Rebekah.

As Rebekah walked through the hallways, she noticed that almost everybody was staring at her and most were whispering or talking to their friends as they did so.

"I heard that she knows some famous guy."

"Klaus Morgan is her brother."

"Did you hear that Klaus Morgan is staying with her?"

"I think they're sleeping together."

Rebekah kept walking and forced herself to ignore all of the gawking.

* * *

"I don't think that you're going to get your wish of people stopping talking about him for even five minutes anytime soon, Care," Elena pointed out amusedly.

"Great," Caroline said sarcastically. "I wonder how many of the girls here are already thinking up plans of how they're magically going to make him fall in love with them."

"Are you?" Bonnie asked her.

"No," Caroline answered. "So he's famous? He's not even a good actor and he was so full of himself last night. I'm already sick of him being in town. I don't care if he's hot."

"You don't?" Bonnie asked doubtfully as she raised an eyebrow at her friend.

"No, I don't," Caroline responded defensively. "Why is that so hard to believe?"

Elena and Bonnie both went silent as they exchanged a meaningful look with each other.

"You should be careful what you say, Care," Elena said with a teasing grin. "You never know who might be standing behind you."

"Not funny," Caroline said as she narrowed her eyes at her friend.

When Caroline thought that the other two weren't looking, she looked over her shoulder to make sure that Rebekah wasn't standing anywhere nearby.

By the time that Caroline turned back around, both of her friends were smirking at her.

"What? I thought that Rebekah might be there," Caroline defended. "Has anybody heard anything about how she knows him yet?"

"Well let's see," Bonnie responded. "From what I've heard she's sleeping with him, and they're siblings, and he's staying at her place. Oh and I also heard that he's in town for some stupid method acting thing and that she's some friend of his agent or something."

"So we know nothing," Caroline pointed out.

"Pretty much," Elena agreed. "And the only way that we have any chance of figuring anything out would be by asking one of them."

"I'm not asking her for anything," Caroline responded. "And I don't want anything to do with him."

* * *

"Seriously Nik?" Rebekah asked as she walked over to her older brother after school. "We've already attracted enough attention without you showing up here at the end of the day in your expensive car."

"I was going to drive you home," Klaus responded. "I was being nice… So what's the story going around?"

"There are a lot of them," She replied. "And a lot of them disgustingly claim that I'm sleeping with you."

"But you corrected them, right?" Klaus asked.

"No," Rebekah told him. "I ignored them because I can't just stop and correct every single person that I overhear talking about you."

"You could at least correct the ones that think that we're sleeping together," He muttered.

"It's most of them," Rebekah pointed out. "And it's not like I'm enjoying their stories either."

As they stood there, a group of girls walked by and stared at the pair as they whispered to each other.

They weren't whispering quietly enough though, since Klaus distinctly heard one of them say, "I bet that he's just using her for sex" and then heard another respond with, "Well can you blame her for letting him?"

"Actually I'm not just using her for sex since I don't sleep with my sister," Klaus said loudly as he turned towards the group of girls. "But thanks for the input."

The group of girls began to blush and look away as they quickly headed towards their cars.

Klaus began to smirk triumphantly as he watched the girls run away.

Rebekah rolled her eyes at her brother before moving past him to get into the car.

Klaus noticed the blonde girl from the night before looking at him from a few cars away and gave her an arrogant wave before turning to go walk around his car towards the driver's side door.

Caroline glared at the back of his head and continued to glare when he turned to look at her as he got into the car. Her anger didn't seem to bother him though as he continued to smirk.


	2. Chapter 2

"I hate him!" Caroline complained to her friends as she sat at the Mystic Grill once again.

This time Caroline sat facing the door so that she would know if he or Rebekah showed up there. That way she could hopefully avoid any more awkward encounters due to people overhearing her opinions.

"That doesn't seem overdramatic at all," Bonnie muttered under her breath.

"He's so ridiculously full of himself," Caroline continued to complain while ignoring her friend's sarcastic comment. "Obviously he just showed up there in his fancy car to try and show off. And that stupid wave makes me want to punch him in the face."

"Do you think that maybe there's a chance that he was just picking Rebekah up?" Elena questioned. "And that maybe he wasn't trying to annoy you, that he was just waving?"

"You saw how arrogant he was last night when he showed up," Caroline pointed out. "He was at least as arrogant as then when he waved."

"Well he did kind of walk in to hear you angrily ranting about him," Bonnie commented. "So that might have had something to do with it."

Caroline groaned loudly as Klaus and Rebekah walked into the Grill.

"We really need to find somewhere new to hang out," She complained.

"Caroline Forbes is going to run away from her usual hangout just because a boy that she doesn't like hangs out there too?" Elena challenged.

"You're right, I shouldn't let him win," Caroline responded. "And that isn't a boy."

That wasn't exactly what Elena had meant, but she decided to go with it. She and Bonnie turned to look in the direction that Caroline was looking to spot Klaus standing with a girl who was pressing herself as close to his body as she could.

* * *

"You were always my favourite on the show," The girl told him. He was pretty sure that she had said that her name was Kylie. "I mean you're just such a good actor. It's like you could really see the pain when Jake found out that Amber was cheating on him with his best friend."

Klaus resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the girl moved to press her body against his even more while she continued to gush on about his acting skills.

He slid his body to the side to get away from her, causing a big frown to form on Kylie's lips.

"I should get back to my sister," Klaus said both because it was true and an easy excuse. "I said that I'd get us drinks a while ago."

Kylie began to pout in a way that just made her even less appealing to him as Klaus turned to order his and his sister's drink.

* * *

"What's the matter?" Rebekah asked when he returned to the table where she was sitting. "I thought that your type was any girl that will look at you."

"It seems to be quite the opposite lately," He responded.

Klaus was getting sick of all of the girls that threw themselves at him and constantly showered him in praise because he was famous. He was sure that many of the girls in Mystic Falls who were looking over at him like he was a piece of meat hadn't even watched his show once. And a lot of them probably didn't even have any idea who he was or hadn't heard of him before he had come to town.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rebekah asked with a raised eyebrow before she noticed her brother staring over at Caroline Forbes, who was obnoxiously laughing about something that one of her friends had said. "Oh, no. You said that you didn't like her."

"Calm down, it's not like I'm going to propose to her," Klaus told her. "I just find her interesting."

"You don't know anything about her," Rebekah complained. "All that you know is that she doesn't like you. Choose someone else."

He ignored his sister as he got up from the table and headed over to the bar.

* * *

A waiter brought over a drink to Caroline and told her that it was from the guy standing by the bar.

Caroline glared over at Klaus, who was currently signing a napkin for a girl who was standing next to him, as she got up from the table.

"He's not worth it, Care," Bonnie told her, but the blonde was too angry to hear it.

"Hello, Judgy," Klaus said with a great smile.

"I don't want your drink," Caroline told him. "And I have a name… Not that I'd ever give it to you."

She resisted the urge to throw the drink in his face and instead just put it down next to him on the bar top.

"Relax. It was a joke, Sweetheart," Klaus told her. "And I know that you have a name, Caroline."

He remembered her name from when his sister had complained about her the night before.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and then moved to turn around and walk away, but stopped when he began to speak again.

"You look stunning when you're angry," Klaus commented with his most dazzling smile.

"I'm not stupid, you know," She pointed out. "I'm not going to fall for this whole charming act."

"That's why I like you," Klaus responded.

"Well like someone else," Caroline retorted.

"You sure dislike me for someone who knows nothing about me," He commented.

"I know that you're completely full of yourself and you think that everybody should just give you whatever you want," Caroline countered. "And that's enough to want nothing to do with you."

"Oh, well my apologies," Klaus told her with a smirk. "I didn't mean to come off that way."

"Yes, you did," She argued. "…Why am I still even talking to you?"

Caroline turned around once again to head back towards her table.

"Can I at least get your number?" He asked as he pulled out his cell phone.

"You don't understand the meaning of 'no', do you?" Caroline asked as she resisted the urge to laugh while turning back to face him once again.

"Not particularly," He responded while holding his phone out to her.

"Seriously?" Caroline asked in disbelief.

He didn't respond, but just continued to hold his phone out until she took it out from him angrily.

Caroline quickly typed something in and then handed the phone back to him.

His smirk widened when he saw what she had put. For a contact name she had put 'Go to Hell' and she had left the phone number blank.

"You're feisty. I like it," Klaus told her as he looked back up towards her. "Can I at least give you my number then?"

"Will it make you leave me alone?" Caroline asked.

"For the time being," He responded casually.

"Fine," Caroline agreed.

She pulled her phone out and went to a new contact, filling in the name for him as 'Self-Obsessed Asshole'.

Once again Klaus's smirk widened when he saw what she had put as a contact name. He quickly typed his number in and then handed her back her phone.

"Good, now leave me alone," Caroline said before turning to attempt to head back towards her table for the third time.

That time Klaus didn't try to stop her as he watched her go.

* * *

"Please tell me that you didn't seriously just exchange numbers with him after all of that complaining about him," Elena begged as Bonnie grabbed up Caroline's phone and began to look through it.

"I didn't," Caroline responded. "He asked for mine so I just typed 'Go to Hell' and then he still insisted on giving me his and said that he'd leave me alone if I did, so he is now 'Self-Obsessed Asshole' in my phone."

"Umm, no. He's not," Bonnie said as she looked up from Caroline's phone. "There isn't anybody under that name. But there is a contact under the name of 'Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed'.

"What?" Caroline asked as she grabbed her phone back out of the other girl's hands.

She looked down at the phone and felt her jaw clench as she angrily typed a text.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_In your dreams._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Thanks for the number, Love._

* * *

Caroline slammed her head down on the table.

"What?" Elena asked.

"I'm an idiot," Caroline responded. "I just angry texted him and now he has my number."

Her friends did not seem very sympathetic as they began to quietly laugh.

"It's not funny!" Caroline argued as she typed one last text.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_Don't make me change my number. And remember that you said that you'd leave me alone._

* * *

Klaus had actually said that he would only leave her alone for the time being, but he decided not to point that out quite yet.

He put his phone in his pocket and looked up to find that his sister did not look like she was having an even remotely good time. He was about to say something to her when she began to smile at someone over his shoulder.

Klaus turned around to spot two men who had just walked in together. One of them remained indifferent and was looking in a completely different direction while the lighter haired one smiled back over at Rebekah.

Klaus turned back around to shoot his sister a suggestive smirk.

"Who's that guy?" He asked.

"Stefan," Rebekah responded. "And we're just friends."

"Oh, I'm sure you are," Klaus assure her in a tone that showed that he believed the exact opposite.

"Seriously, Nik," She told him sternly. "He's just my friend."

"Fine," Klaus gave up as his face fell. "But that doesn't mean that you don't like him."

The teasing smirk returned to his lips.

"Shut up," Rebekah ordered.

Klaus took a sip of his drink without another word as he looked back towards the table where his sister's 'friend' was now sitting.

"We could go over there if you want," Klaus suggested. He figured that his sister was less likely to complain about the amount of time that he had spent basically ignoring her if they moved over there.

* * *

"Oh my god! It's that guy that I've never heard of from that show that I never watched," The dark haired boy said in a tone of mock excitement as Rebekah and Klaus sat down at the table.

"Damon," Stefan said in what sounded like a parental warning.

Klaus wasn't bothered by the comment though and was actually grinning.

"I wonder how many of the girls that are all over me even heard about me before I showed up," He replied. "Somehow I doubt that they all liked me before then."

"Well Stefan here worshipped you religiously," Damon said with a smirk.

Stefan rolled his eyes at his brother's lie as he sarcastically responded with, "Definitely."

"He has a shrine in his room and everything," Damon continued.

"I've been in his room, Damon," Rebekah pointed out. "And you're a terrible liar. The only here with a shrine of Nik is him."

Klaus cracked a grin at his sister's joke.


	3. Chapter 3

"Nik, no!" Rebekah complained.

"Give me one good reason why not," Klaus challenged her.

"Because it's a terrible idea… Because I don't want our house filled with people that I don't even like… Because I don't want to end up having to clean up after people I hate... Because we don't need girls showing up here looking for you all the time... Because I made a point of not having everybody know where we live…" Rebekah trailed off as she crossed her arms.

"I said one reason," He pointed out. "Not a list."

"I thought that maybe you would actually listen if I gave you a list," Rebekah responded unhappily.

"Well clearly you thought wrong," Klaus told her. "It's just a party. Don't you think that I deserve to have you throw me a welcome to town party? …And who knows, maybe I'll find a different girl to chase after instead of your mortal enemy, Caroline Forbes."

"Right," Rebekah replied in disbelief. "So I guess that means that I don't have to invite Caroline."

"Well if you want to be rude and invite everyone else except for her…" Klaus trailed off. "But who knows, maybe if she shows up she'll reject me so badly that I'll end up shaken to my core and completely give up all hope of anything ever happening with her."

Rebekah rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed before saying, "Fine. But you owe me… And if a bunch of girls start showing up at our door all the time then I will beat you to a pulp for it."

Klaus ignored his sister's threat as he began to grin wildly.

* * *

By lunch time of school the next day, the hallways were filled with talk about Rebekah's party and people wondering whether Klaus Morgan would be there or not.

Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie were all surprised when Rebekah came and approached them while they were standing next to Caroline's locker.

"Hey, did you three hear about my party?" Rebekah asked with the friendliest smile that she could muster towards her three least favourite people in the school.

"Yeah, I think we heard something about it," Bonnie answered for the other girls.

"Well it's on Saturday, and I'd like if you all came," Rebekah told them as she pulled a piece of paper out of her bag. "Here's the address."

"Really?" Caroline asked with an arched eyebrow. "You want all of us to come? …Why? We don't even get along with each other."

"Well without you Nik won't have anyone to follow around like a little lost puppy," Rebekah said as all pretenses of friendliness disappeared from her tone.

Caroline practically rolled her eyes at the bitterness coming from the other blonde. It wasn't like Caroline wanted his attention, she would gladly hand it over to Rebekah in a heartbeat if she could.

She still had no clue how Rebekah supposedly knew Klaus or if she even really did, maybe she didn't and had just chosen to throw herself at him, but Caroline was beginning to get more curious about what the answer could be.

* * *

"Did you hear about Rebekah's party?" Tyler asked Caroline during their last class of the day.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the whole school has," Caroline responded.

"Well are you going to go?" Tyler asked her.

"I don't know," Caroline told him. "I mean she invited me, but…"

"Why not? It's not like you even have to be around her, the whole school is going to be there," Tyler pointed out. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"It's not Rebekah that I'm worried about being stuck around," Caroline replied.

Sure, she didn't want to have to put up with Rebekah, but that wasn't the biggest of her concerns.

"What does that mean?" Tyler asked as his brow furrowed in confusion.

"It means that I'm positive that Klaus is going, it's the only reason that she invited me. And I'm also just as sure that he'll continue annoying me like he has been since he got to town," Caroline explained.

"I'm sure that me and Matt could scare him away if we need to," Tyler told her, causing her to smile. "Why is he bothering you anyways?"

"Apparently he likes me," Caroline responded. "Which somehow means that he has to be a totally annoying jerk all the time."

"Are you really going to miss a party just to try and avoid some jerk?" Tyler asked. "Or are you going to come have fun with your friends and let me handle it if the guy starts harassing you?"

"I guess you have a point," Caroline agreed. "I'll go."

"Good," Tyler said with a big smile.

Even if she didn't want to have to deal with Klaus, Caroline did have to admit that the idea of going to a party with all of her friends did appeal to her. They hadn't gone to a proper party in too long and Caroline was sure that with Rebekah's over the top attitude that it would be a good one.


	4. Chapter 4

"Whoa," Caroline said as she got out of her car at the address that Rebekah had given them.

"Her house is huge," Bonnie commented as she got out of the passenger side.

"That isn't a house," Elena argued as she got out of the car and followed her friends. "This is a mansion."

"You can say that again," Caroline agreed as they began to walk towards the driveway that was already overflowing with vehicles.

* * *

When they stepped inside the building they found that it was already filled with people as music was blaring.

They headed over to where Tyler, Matt, and Jeremy were already standing together.

"Who wants drinks?" Matt asked.

Everyone asked for one, so he took Tyler along with him to help carry.

Sure, Caroline had driven them there. But she figured that one drink wasn't going to kill her and worst case she could make Elena or Bonnie be the designated driver. And if they refused then they could all just walk home or make someone else drive them. All that Caroline knew was that she wasn't going to be the one person standing there watching everybody else drink and have fun, especially when she knew that Klaus was supposed to be there.

* * *

Although Rebekah still seemed less than eager about the party, she seemed to be warming up to the idea a little as she danced with Stefan.

Damon, who had come with his brother, could tell when he was third wheeling, so he decided to go find someone else to go hang out with.

* * *

Klaus noticed Caroline standing in a group with her two friends and a brunette boy and began to make his way towards them, ignoring the girls who were trying to stop him on his way.

* * *

"Incoming," Elena warned her friend as she noticed Klaus approaching.

"Great," Caroline said sarcastically before letting out a loud sigh.

* * *

When Klaus reached her, he leaned towards her and asked, "Would you like a drink?"

Caroline turned around and then began to grin as she noticed Matt and Tyler making their way back behind him.

"I'd love one," Caroline said before stepping past him to grab a drink from Tyler.

A smirk formed on Klaus's lips as he watched. The harder she tried to resist him, the more that he wanted her.

"Do you want one?" Tyler asked him with his fakest smile.

"Sure," Klaus responded, surprised that one of her friends seemed to be offering for him to stay there and take one of the drinks.

"Well then leave her alone and go get your own," Tyler said before handing a drink to Jeremy.

"Someone's jealous," Klaus commented. "Strange that she never mentioned having a boyfriend before."

"He's not my boyfriend," Caroline corrected. "And you never will be, so just go away."

Klaus leaned forward to whisper, or speak rather considering the volume of the music, into her ear, "I'm not so sure that he knows that he isn't, Sweetheart."

"Don't call me that," She told him as he pulled back from her.

"Sorry, Love," He apologized with a grin.

"Don't call me that either," Caroline said, clearly unimpressed.

"Then what would you like me to call you?" He asked innocently.

"How about you don't call her anything and just go away?" Bonnie spoke up for her friend.

"It seems like it would be a little rude to call you 'Go to Hell' all the time," Klaus continued, ignoring the girl. "It could easily be misinterpreted as me actually telling you to go to Hell."

Caroline took a swig of her drink, unable to deal with him while sober, and then turned around to ignore him and pay attention to her friends instead.

"So Elena, I just have to tell you the story of this totally annoying guy that won't take no for an answer," She said loudly.

"Look man, she doesn't want you here. Just go away," Matt suggested to Klaus.

* * *

Damon didn't exactly have any friends in town, he mostly just hung out with his brother and occasionally would hang out with Rebekah if Stefan was there too, but his good looks did tend to make girls want to be around him.

He noticed Klaus standing with a group of people and decided to head over there, figuring that he probably knew Klaus at least as well as anyone else there just from their one sitting. Damon figured that he was pretty okay to be around, so why not? Besides, there was one particularly cute girl standing in the group with him.

As Damon walked up to the group, Klaus turned and walked away.

Damon decided to stick with the group, refusing to be like one of the girls who followed Klaus around. Besides, he still wanted to talk to that cute girl.

"It's Damon, right?" Jeremy asked when he noticed the eldest Salvatore standing there.

"Yeah," Damon confirmed.

"He's gone," Elena told her friend.

"Thank God," Caroline said dramatically.

She groaned a little on the inside when she saw the brother of Rebekah's best friend standing there. She just could not quite catch a break.

* * *

It turned out that Damon actually wasn't so bad; he just seemed to want to have fun and flirt with Elena.

Caroline herself ended up having a pretty good time drinking and dancing with her friends. She had actually managed to forget about Klaus for a while.

* * *

"Would you like to dance?" Klaus asked Caroline as he noticed her walking through the party a while later.

By that point Caroline had already drunk enough that she had begun to forget about how much he got on her nerves.

A smile formed on Klaus's lips as he realized that she seemed to be debating it.

"Just one dance, that's all I'm asking for," He tried.

"Fine," Caroline agreed, deciding that one dance couldn't hurt after she had been dancing with her friends, including Matt, Tyler, and Jeremy, all night so far.

* * *

"Why are we slow dancing?" Caroline asked. "This isn't even a slow song."

Feel This Moment by Pitbull was playing loudly throughout the party.

"Because I wanted to slow dance with you," Klaus replied as if it should be obvious.

She had to smile a little at the ridiculousness of it.

"So how did you even convince Rebekah to invite me?" Caroline asked. "What, were you only going to come if I did?"

"No," He responded. "I actually had to pull out a brotherly guilt trip on her to even convince her to throw a party in the first place… There's not much to do in this town."

Caroline began to laugh as her smile began to spread.

"What?" He asked.

A smile formed on his lips at the sight of hers even if he didn't have the slightest idea about what she thought was funny.

"Sorry, it's just the whole brother thing," She responded as she forced herself to stop laughing. "I kind of thought that she liked you."

"Well apparently it's a common assumption that I'm sleeping with her," Klaus pointed out.

"And I'm guessing that you aren't so happy with that?" Caroline commented.

"No, I'm thrilled that people think that I'm sleeping with my sister," He said jokingly.

"Right, stupid question," She said with a slight laugh.

"I'm growing on you," Klaus commented.

"Well it might be the fact that I may or may not be a little bit drunk," Caroline responded. "But yes."

"You can't be too drunk if you aren't falling over your own feet while we're dancing," He pointed out.

"Good point," Caroline agreed, thinking that she would have to use that later against Elena who was claiming that Caroline was wasted. "…So is your real name Nik?"

Klaus laughed a little as he responded, "Not exactly. My real name is Niklaus. The only people who call me Nik are my siblings… Except for Elijah, he usually calls me by my entire first name."

She couldn't help herself from laughing at his real name as she said, "Sorry, it's just _Niklaus_?"

"I know, it's pretty bad," Klaus agreed with a grin. "There's a reason that I go by Klaus instead."

"How many siblings do you have?" Caroline asked.

"Four," He answered. "But I'm only on speaking terms with three of them."

"So your mom must have been like _always pregnant_ ," Caroline commented.

"For a while yes," Klaus responded with a grin.

They danced for a few seconds in silence before Caroline quietly said, "Thanks for not abusing the fact that you have my phone number yet."

"Thanks for not handing mine out to every girl in town yet," He answered her.

* * *

When the song ended Klaus pulled away from her even though he didn't want to. After all, he had promised her one dance only. He decided that he wouldn't bother her for the rest of the night since he wanted to stay relatively on her good side… Or at the very least off of her bad side.

* * *

When Caroline returned to her group of friends, Elena and Damon were dancing together while everyone else seemed to be all danced out.

"I thought that you couldn't stand him," Bonnie commented.

"He's not as bad as I thought," Caroline defended. "But it's still not like I'm going to fall for him. He's just kind of okay to be around."

"Right," Bonnie said sarcastically. "Elena was right, you are drunk."

"No, I'm not," Caroline defended quickly. "I wouldn't be able to dance without tripping if I was drunk! I'm tipsy at most. But if you want me to be drunk-"

She took the drink from Bonnie's hand and took a sip of it.

"Uh-oh," Matt commented suddenly.

"What?" Tyler asked him.

"Caroline's mom's here." Matt answered.

Caroline groaned loudly as she turned around to see her mom heading straight towards her. It was too late to get rid of the drink in her hand as she walked over to her mom in an attempt to avoid the embarrassment in front of her friends.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked as she approached her mother.

"I could ask you the same thing," Liz responded as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm here because we received a complaint about a party with underage drinking. Speaking of which, that had better not be alcohol in that cup."

Caroline looked down at the cup and was about to say something when someone else began to speak first.

Klaus had noticed Caroline talking to a sheriff and looking quite guilty. He noticed a resemblance, but wasn't positive if they were related or not. Either way, he decided that she looked like she could use a little help.

"Caroline," He said as he walked over to her and reached out a hand. "Thanks for watching my drink."

He turned to look at a slightly confused looking Sheriff.

"I asked her to look after it while I went to go try to talk people out of having sex in my bed," He lied.

"So you live here?" Liz asked him. "This is your party?"

"Yes," He answered.

"You do realize how many minors are there are drinking here, don't you?" She asked as Caroline wished that she could just turn invisible.

"No, I didn't," Klaus said as he furrowed his brow and pretended to be shocked and horrified by the information. "I'm new to town; I don't really know many people. I had just assumed that they were all of age."

Liz turned towards Caroline, just seeming to remember that her daughter was still there.

"Caroline, go get Bonnie and Elena and drive them home," She instructed. "We'll talk when I get home."

Caroline resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that it would only get her in more trouble than she would already be in, before she turned and headed back towards her friends to go get Bonnie and Elena.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day at school everyone seemed to be sucking up to Rebekah in an attempt to get some information about Klaus. Caroline couldn't imagine how much it must be bothering Rebekah, since it was driving her insane just witnessing it.

At lunch time Rebekah's table became overflowing with girls within instants. And when she tried to move to a separate table all of the girls moved with her.

Stefan walked towards the table where he usually sat to find that there wasn't even room for him to get anywhere near the table.

As Caroline tried to get around the swarm of people to the other end of the lunchroom where her friends were waiting for her, she became more and more fed up.

"Do you all honestly think that she's just going to give out his number to any girl that sucks up to her?" Caroline demanded exasperatedly. "Or that even if she did that you would really have a chance with how many of you there are?"

Some of the girls turned around and glared at Caroline while, for once, Rebekah actually appeared to be happy that the other girl was there.

"Seriously, the two main theories going around are that she's sleeping with him or related to him," Caroline continued. "Neither of those really seem like she'd want to just hand his number out everywhere. So just go away and scavenge somewhere else because all you're doing is making sure that she won't help introduce any of you to him."

A large portion of the girls sauntered away just leaving the main desperate few.

"She's right," Rebekah spoke up in agreement. "I'm not introducing any of you to my brother, especially when you won't leave me alone."

None of the remaining girls looked impressed, but they did all slowly walk away from the table.

Stefan quickly grabbed a spot at the table, glad that Caroline had gotten rid of all of the swarming girls.

"Thanks," Rebekah said looking up at the other blonde. "I'm not exactly sure why you helped me, but thanks either way."

"I'll admit that you're not exactly my favourite person, but that doesn't mean that you deserve to have them all bothering you," Caroline replied before heading towards her own table.

* * *

Later that day, Caroline was walking into the Mystic Grill just as a familiar face was walking towards the exit.

"So, you're new to town and you thought that we were all old enough to be drinking," She commented with a smirk. "That might be one of the worst excuses that I've ever heard."

"Hey, I got you out of getting into more trouble," Klaus defended as a smile formed on his lips at the fact that she was starting up a conversation with him.

"Thanks for that by the way," Caroline responded. "So if that was your excuse then does that mean that you're legal drinking age?"

"Not exactly," He admitted with a smirk. "I'm twenty, but I also have a quite easy time convincing people to serve me anyways."

"I'm guessing that your excuse really didn't go over well then," She commented.

"Let's just say that your mom isn't exactly a fan of me," Klaus told her. "And you're in the same grade as Rebekah, so you're eighteen or seventeen?"

"Eighteen," She responded.

Klaus nodded before commenting, "If I'd known that I was going to be meeting your mom this early then I would have made a better impression."

"That right there is exactly why I don't like you," Caroline pointed out. "You were actually growing on me and I thought that maybe I was just imagining how bad you were. But then you just had to go and prove me wrong."

"Do you know why I like you?" He asked her.

"No," Caroline admitted. "You don't know anything about me, so I can't imagine why."

"It's because you're honest and you don't let me get away with everything," Klaus responded. "You didn't immediately change your opinion about me just because I'm here. Do you know how many other girls here probably think that I'm a terrible actor or didn't even know who I am? They're just chasing after me because I'm famous and attractive. You're real with me. And I like a challenge."

"You do see the flaw in that logic, right?" She asked him. "You like me because I don't like you. If I start liking you then I become just like all of those other girls. There would be no challenge and the novelty would immediately wear off."

"Maybe, but you're different," Klaus assured her.

"Sorry, but I'm not as gullible as all of the other girls in town," Caroline told him. "I know that the chances of you staying in town for long are bad. And the chances of you magically falling in love with some small town girl and changing your ways for her are even worse."

"Is that what it is? You can't give me any real chance because you think that I'd just leave?" Klaus asked.

Although Caroline didn't really want to admit it, that was one of the reasons that she was ignoring Klaus's advances. After her dad had left a few months ago the last thing that she needed was to get emotionally attached to anyone else that was just going to leave.

"That and because you can be really irritating sometimes," She responded.

"Well then how about we try for friends instead?" Klaus suggested.

Caroline considered it for a second before responding with, "Fine, but just friends."

"At least until you start trusting me and decide to change your mind," He agreed.

"No problem because that isn't going to happen," Caroline said before turning to continue walking into the restaurant.

"Tell yourself whatever you want, Sweetheart," Klaus said before walking out of the door.

Caroline silently wondered to herself if she had just made a big mistake by agreeing to be his friend as she walked over to where Tyler and Bonnie were waiting for her.

"What was that with Klaus?" Tyler questioned.

He had thought that Caroline was annoyed by Klaus, but it had looked like she had been the one to strike up the conversation… Maybe he had done something that had bothered Caroline and she had spoken up about it..?

"Yeah, I thought that you didn't even like him," Bonnie agreed. "Or are you still a little drunk?"

"I'm completely sober," Caroline argued. "And I think that I might have kind of just agreed to being friends with him."

Tyler appeared less than impressed as he sat there in silence.

"What happened to hating him?" Bonnie asked.

"He still gets on my nerves, but he's alright when he isn't trying to be annoying," Caroline admitted. "And it's not like he was going to leave me alone anytime soon anyways."

Tyler silently thought that the fact that Klaus wasn't going to leave her alone wasn't any reason to become friends with him, but said nothing.


	6. Chapter 6

Over the course of the next week, Caroline became used to Klaus's stopping her with his flirty little comments and looks as she walked by. She hadn't just become used to it; she was actually beginning to like it a little bit… Not that she would ever admit it to him.

* * *

Klaus woke up in the middle of the night drenched in a cold sweat. He sat up and ran his hand through his damp hair as he tried to calm himself down. It was no use though since his heart was still pounding in his chest and he couldn't quite catch his breath.

He got up and headed towards the washroom to run himself a shower. There was no chance that he was going to get back to sleep anytime soon and he was sticky with sweat.

Once he was back out of the shower and in a clean change of clothes, Klaus headed downstairs. Even if he somehow could fall back asleep, he didn't want to. He didn't want to see it again.

He tried to take his mind off of his nightmares by drawing, but his art quickly transformed into images that he couldn't bear to think about.

Klaus quickly ripped the page out of his sketchbook and crumpled it up before throwing it out. He tossed the sketchbook aside and made his way towards the kitchen.

He grabbed a bottle of bourbon and headed back towards the couch.

* * *

Rebekah woke up and headed downstairs to go get a glass of water. She walked down the stairs to find her brother sitting on the couch with his head in his hands and an open bottle of alcohol sitting next to him.

"I'm guessing that the nightmares are back," She said quietly.

"Like clockwork," Klaus responded as he lifted his head to look at her.

"Are you okay?" Rebekah asked in a tone of concern.

"Perfect," He lied before taking a long swig from his drink.

* * *

That evening, Caroline was surprised when she walked into the Mystic Grill to find Klaus drunk and sitting by himself. She was even more surprised when he looked away from her gaze and remained silent as she walked past.

She had just passed his table when she turned back around to face him.

"Really?" She asked. "No flirty little comment? Not even a smile?"

"Sorry, Love," He said in a slurred tone. "I'm not exactly in the flirting kind of mood."

Caroline noticed the half empty bottle of vodka sitting on the table and raised an eyebrow.

"How did you convince them to give you the whole bottle?" She asked with a frown.

"Money can get you almost anything," He responded as he reached for the bottle.

Caroline grabbed it before he could drink from it more and then sat down next to him in the booth.

"Give it back," He complained.

"No," She responded. "You're already practically falling over sitting down. You don't need any more. Besides, do you not see how many people here are taking pictures on their phones? There's going to be pictures of you drunk all over the internet already, you don't need any more to drink."

"I don't care," Klaus told her.

"Maybe you don't now, but your judgement is more than a little impaired right now," Caroline pointed out.

"Why are you trying to help me?" He asked her. "You don't even like me."

"We're supposed to be friends, aren't we?" Caroline asked him. "Friends cut friends off from drinking more when they're already wasted."

Klaus just groaned loudly in response.

"Come on, I'm taking you home," Caroline said as she got back up.

"Fine," He mumbled as he attempted to get up.

He managed to stand up and then practically fell back down into the booth as she had to grab onto him to keep him from falling over.

"I might be a little drunk," He admitted.

"Yeah, maybe," Caroline responded in an unimpressed tone as she helped lead him towards the exit.

They barely made it outside before Klaus crumpled over to throw up on the sidewalk. Caroline took a step back just in time to avoid getting it all over her shoes.

"Sorry," He said weakly as he wiped his hand over his mouth and righted himself.

"Just please try not to do that in my car," Caroline begged as she helped him into the passenger seat.

Thankfully he managed to make it through the car ride without emptying the contents of his stomach again.

Caroline got him to the front door of his and Rebekah's home only to discover that the door was locked. Rebekah must have been somewhere else.

"Do you have keys?" She asked as she turned towards him.

She didn't hold out much hope that he'd be able to find them in his intoxicated state, but she had to ask anyways.

Klaus patted his jacket pockets in a confused state before finding them in the pockets of his jeans.

Caroline took them from him and got the door unlocked and open. She managed to get him to the couch, where he instantly laid down.

She put the keys down on the table and turned around to see that he had passed out on the couch.

Caroline sighed and then headed back towards the front door.

* * *

When Rebekah came back home from Stefan's house, she found all of the lights out and the door unlocked and rolled her eyes at her brother's stupidity. It wasn't until she actually walked into the house to find him passed out on the couch that she realized that the door had been left unlocked because he had barely managed to make his way through it.

As she looked down at him, he twitched a little in his sleep and let out a quiet whimper.

Rebekah frowned as she removed her brother's shoes for him and then threw a blanket over him.

Once he was covered, she left the room and grabbed a phone.

* * *

The next morning, or late afternoon really, Klaus woke up to someone loudly slamming the front door closed. He grabbed at his head in pain as loud footsteps made their way into the room.

Klaus had had terrible nightmares for the entire night long, but hadn't been able to wake up from them. Somehow being awake didn't feel much better to him.

"You look like shit, Nik," A voice came from the doorway of the room.

Klaus looked up to see Kol standing there with the blinding light from the sun coming in through a window behind him. He quickly looked back down and covered his eyes with his arm.

"Look a little happier to see me, why don't you?" Kol told him sarcastically.

"Could you stop talking so loud?" Klaus begged. "I shouldn't have drunk so much last night."

"That or you shouldn't have stopped," Kol responded. "You can't have a bad hangover if you're still a little drunk."

"So I should just stay drunk for the rest of my life?" Klaus asked him.

"No, but maybe just until the nightmares stop again," Kol responded with a shrug that Klaus couldn't see since his arm was still draped over his eyes.

"Rebekah told you about that?" Klaus asked.

"Why do you think that I'm here?" Kol asked. "Besides, it's not that hard to guess. They always come around the same time and you're more than a little hungover right now."

"And you're more than a little obnoxiously loud right now," Klaus retorted.


	7. Chapter 7

That evening Caroline was concerned when she met her friends at the Mystic Grill to find that Klaus was once again drinking from a large bottle of alcohol. That time he wasn't drinking alone though, there was a brunette man drinking with him.

The other man seemed significantly more intoxicated as he continuously grabbed the bottle back out of Klaus's hands to take another swig.

As Caroline approached the table, the brunette told her, "We're a little busy right now for strumpets. But if you want to come back later…"

He winked at her.

"No, not this one," Klaus said, turning to look at his younger brother. "She can stay."

"Did he just call me a strumpet?" Caroline asked with an arched eyebrow as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Whoops," Kol said with an innocent shrug.

"What does that even mean?" She asked.

"I believe my brother just called you a prostitute," Klaus explained before turning back to face Kol. "Trust me, she is not for sale."

"I'm done trying to help you," Caroline told him. "You can just get drunk and keep making an ass of yourself for all I care."

With that she turned to walk away.

"Caroline, wait," Klaus spoke up.

She stopped and turned to look at him although it was clear that she was still angry.

"My memory of last night is a little fuzzy," Klaus told her. "But did you-"

"You were drunk, so I drove you home," She responded. "You threw up all over the sidewalk and passed out on your couch without so much as a thank you."

"Well I'm thanking you now, Love," Klaus replied with a smile.

Caroline didn't dignify him with a response as she turned on her heel to walk away.

* * *

"What's with him?" Bonnie asked with an arched eyebrow as she eyed the two men.

"I don't know," Caroline responded casually as she sat down.

Although she was trying to sound indifferent, admittedly she was actually a little concerned about him.

* * *

"I don't think she likes you very much," Kol commented. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing," Klaus responded. "She's just smart enough to not fall for the act."

* * *

A while later Rebekah walked into the Grill with a dark-haired man in a suit by her side.

Caroline watched in fascination as the dark-haired man leaned over and said one thing in Klaus's ear before being handed the bottle.

The man took a quick swig before giving it away to a group of people at the nearest table. When he returned again, he said something that caused the man who had been drinking with Klaus to roll his eyes.

Rebekah said something to the man who had rolled his eyes and then he got up from the table and began to walk away.

Caroline wondered what had just happened as she realized that the man was now walking towards her table.

He sat down in the empty chair without asking and then smiled at them as he said, "Hi, I'm Kol Mikaelson… I think that you know my brother, Klaus Morgan."

Elena began to laugh as Bonnie commented, "That's not exactly a selling feature at this table."

Kol seemed unphased as he turned to Elena and told her, "You have an adorable laugh, you know that?"

Elena had to turn away from Kol's gaze as he smiled over at her.

"So names," Kol commented as he looked around the table. "I know that you're Caroline, but I don't know either of your friends' names."

"I'm Bonnie," Bonnie introduced herself. "And that's Elena."

Kol smiled at them before turning to face Caroline.

"Sorry about the strumpet thing," Kol apologized. "I hear that you're quite the opposite."

"Yeah, they call her Caroline the Prude," Bonnie agreed sarcastically.

"Hey!"

Caroline stared at her friend in shock. She began to laugh a little as she threw a fry at Bonnie's face.

"Well you aren't exactly a puritan, Care," Elena pointed out with a grin.

"I didn't know that it was the official call Caroline a whore night," Caroline complained.

"We're just joking," Bonnie told her. "You know we love you."

Caroline rolled her eyes, but couldn't keep a slight smile from forming on her lips.

"I'd buy you ladies some drinks, but apparently I've been cut off," Kol told them. "Elijah and Rebekah seem to think that I'm being a bad influence on Nik. Personally I think that what he needs is someone to drink with."

Caroline noticed the use of 'Elijah' and realized that the man who had taken Klaus's drink away had been his other brother that he was on speaking terms with.

She turned to look at his table without thinking. Klaus was sitting with his head on the table as Elijah was saying something to him.

"Elijah as in one of your other brothers?" Caroline asked.

"Nik must really like you if he told you that," Kol commented with a grin. "He doesn't tend to talk about his family to just anyone."

"What exactly is going on with him?" She asked.

Kol began to laugh a little before he told her, "No offense, but I am nowhere near drunk enough to tell some random girl that I just met all about things that my brother has been trying very hard to hide."

Caroline wondered exactly Klaus was hiding that made him put up so many walls.

* * *

Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah all got up from the table. As Rebekah began to lead her brother towards the door, Elijah walked over to where his other brother was currently sitting.

"Is he going to be alright?" Caroline asked Kol with a frown.

"If the he that you're referring to is Niklaus then yes, he should be," A voice came from behind her. "This is always a hard week for my brother, but he should get back to his normal self soon after it's over."

Caroline turned around in her seat to see Elijah standing there.

"Thanks," She told him as she wondered just what could possibly be going on with Klaus.

"My pleasure," Elijah responded before turning to face his younger brother. "Kol, it's time to go."

Although Kol didn't seem happy about it, he got up without a complaint and began to head for the door with his brother.


	8. Chapter 8

Klaus wasn't very happy when he woke up in the middle of the night, once again filled with dread, only to go downstairs to discover that Elijah had gotten rid of every last drop of alcohol in the place.

How was he expected to get rid of the images in his head if there wasn't any goddamn alcohol in the house?

He sat down on the couch in defeat and attempted to take his mind off of the memories… To make himself think about something else.

He managed to convince himself to think about Caroline instead and for a few brief seconds it seemed to work. It only became a problem when he began to think about how much he had screwed things up with her already… She had just been trying to help him and he had ended up sending her away angry.

But what was he supposed to do? He couldn't just tell her everything. And even if he could convince himself to, even if he was sure that she wouldn't want tell anyone else, how was it fair for him to unload his problems onto her? …Besides, he was more than a little afraid of what she would think if she knew what was really going on.

As he thought about it, his mind quickly switched from thinking about Caroline to thinking about the memories.

He sat there alone in the darkness of the living room with tears in his eyes as he tried to will himself not to cry and not to think about it.

* * *

The next morning when Rebekah walked downstairs on her way to school, she found her brother sitting on the couch. There were dark circles under his eyes and he appeared to have been sitting there for quite a while.

"Have you been here all night?" She asked him with a worried frown.

"Not all night," Klaus responded as he looked up at her. "Just most of it."

"Did you get any sleep?" Rebekah asked him.

"About half an hour of nightmares," He told her. "I've been awake since."

"Nik, you can't keep torturing yourself over this," Rebekah tried.

"That's a great idea, why didn't I think of that?" Klaus asked her sarcastically. "It's not that easy. Do you think that I'm having the nightmares on purpose? I wish that I could forget."

"That's not what I meant," She argued.

"You should go to school," He told her. "You wouldn't want to show up late and attract even more attention to yourself."

"Are you going to be okay if I go?" Rebekah asked him.

"No worse than I'd be with you here," Klaus responded.

Rebekah hesitated for a moment longer before heading towards the door.

* * *

"What the hell?" Kol demanded as he looked through the kitchen. "Who got rid of all of the liquor?"

"Who do you think?" Klaus asked him.

Kol groaned dramatically before walking out of the room.

"Elijah!" He called out loudly as he went looking for his older brother.

Elijah walked down the stairs, seeming undisturbed by the anger in his brother's tone as he casually sat down in a chair across from Klaus.

"Just because you don't want him drinking doesn't mean that you should torture me," Kol complained.

"You're nineteen, you shouldn't even be drinking," Elijah pointed out, causing Kol to roll his eyes. "And both of you need to get control of yourselves."

"I'm not the problem, he is," Kol defended himself.

"Thanks," Klaus said sarcastically as he got up to leave the room.

Elijah shot his youngest brother a glare as he got up to follow Klaus.

"Come on, he knows that I didn't mean it like that," Kol defended as Elijah left the room.

* * *

"That isn't what Kol meant," Elijah commented as he caught up with his brother.

"That's exactly what Kol meant and how all of you feel. He's just the only one that's willing to admit it," Klaus responded.

"We're concerned about you, but we don't think of you as a problem," Elijah told him calmly.

"I don't want to talk about this," Klaus replied. He knew that he was a problem and he wasn't interested in being lied to.

"Alright, then we'll talk about something else," Elijah agreed. "There was a blonde girl with Kol last night that seemed pretty worried about you."

A blonde girl that was with Kol? Wouldn't that mean Caroline?

"She isn't worried about me, she's mad at me," Klaus corrected.

"Then why was she asking if you're going to be alright?" Elijah asked him.

Klaus thought about it for a second. The one person in town that he really cared about, at least that he wasn't related to, finally cared about him enough to be worried and he was acting like a total jerk to her and pushing her away.

* * *

Caroline was at the Mystic Grill playing a round of pool on a team with Tyler against Matt and Elena. She just finished taking a shot when Klaus walked through the doors.

He had figured that the Grill was by far his best bet at finding her, and apparently he had thought right. He wasn't exactly thrilled about the fact that Rebekah had gone with him as a babysitter, but at least she didn't argue when he said that he'd be back and then walked away.

As he walked over to Caroline, he noticed that the friend who seemed to think that he was her boyfriend was glaring over at him.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked Caroline quietly as a certain one of her friends continued to glare over at him.

"Yeah, sure," Caroline said as she thought to herself that he was giving off a strangely serious vibe. "Tyler, you're in charge of my turns."

Tyler, so that was the lapdog's name. Klaus took a mental note of that as he walked over to somewhere more private with Caroline.

* * *

"What do you want?" Caroline asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Clearly she was still upset with him, even if she was worried about him.

"I know that I've been acting weird and like a jerk for the last few days," Klaus began, suddenly wondering why he hadn't figured out how he was going to tell her beforehand. "And I want to explain why, but it's something that I don't really talk about to anyone."

Caroline could see the pain in his eyes, but it didn't stop her from asking, "So you came over to tell me that you aren't going to explain it to me, even though you want to?"

"No, I came over here to explain it to you because I want you to know. I just thought that you should know that I don't tell people about this," Klaus told her. "…You know how I said that I have four siblings?"

She nodded.

"Well I used to have five and really they're only half-siblings," He continued, for once seeming to be having a hard time maintaining eye contact with her. "I'm the result of my mother having an affair with one of our old neighbours."

Caroline was listening intently, but wasn't quite sure how all of this linked together.

"My biological father was less than happy with my mother for trying to keep the affair a secret and passing me off as her husband's," Klaus told her. "And for a long time he didn't do much about it. He was always angry, and at that point we didn't know why, but one day I guess that he just snapped."

He stopped for a second as he looked down at his feet before he looked back up at her sheepishly.

"The other sibling, the fifth one," Klaus continued, seeming to be having a hard time getting the words out. "His name was Henrik… He was only six and I was supposed to be watching him."

Caroline could see the sheer pain and vulnerability in his eyes as he appeared to be trying to hold tears back.

"We were outside in the front yard when my biological father… He came out of nowhere in his car," Klaus said, forcing the words out against his will. "He drove straight into our yard… He was aiming for me… I should have grabbed Henrik or pushed him out of the way."

She placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to help comfort him.

"I didn't think fast enough though… One second I saw the car, the next second I was lying on the ground next to it watching my brother get run over," He told her. "Afterwards the man who I had thought was my real father, my step-father, found out whose child I really was… He and Finn already blamed me for it before that, but when they found out that I was related to the driver…"

He trailed off for a moment to try to get a hold of his emotions before continuing.

"My step-father tried to kick me out of the house, but my mother and Elijah managed to talk him down… But that never stopped him from hating and beating me," Klaus looked away from her. "I got out of there as soon as I could and I didn't look back… But the anniversary of Henrik's death is tomorrow and every year it brings days of nightmares and things that I don't want to remember… Every time I close my eyes I see it again and I hear his cries."

Klaus cut himself off, finally done explaining after what had felt like an eternity to him. He timidly looked up at her to try to see how she was reacting to the information.

Before he had any chance to look at her facial expression, she had her arms wrapped around him in a tight embrace.

Klaus didn't say anything as he stood still, letting her try to comfort him.

"It wasn't your fault," She told him.

"Maybe not entirely," Klaus replied. "But it at least partially was."

Caroline let go of him and took a step back to look him in the eyes.

"You like me because I'm honest with you, right?" She asked him. "Well I'm telling you that it wasn't your fault because it's the truth."

Klaus nodded weakly although secretly he thought that it may honestly be what she thought, but that it wasn't true. She wasn't there, she couldn't possibly know.

"Thank you for telling me," She told him. "And letting me past the walls."

Klaus wasn't sure how to reply to that, so he just said, "You should probably get back to your friends."

"Are you sure?" She asked him.

"Yeah, Rebekah's waiting for me anyways," Klaus replied.

* * *

"What was that about?" Elena asked with an arched eyebrow when her friend returned. The look in her eyes showed that she had seen the hug and she wanted Caroline to know that.

"He just wanted to explain why he's been acting weird," Caroline replied casually. "It's no big deal."

But it was a big deal and something that Caroline wasn't going to tell to anyone about.

She looked down at the pool table and then complained, "I never should have left you alone, Lockwood. How did you suck that much while I was gone?"

Tyler didn't provide her with an answer, but the main reason that he had missed so many shots was because he had been too distracted by watching her and Klaus to play decently.

* * *

"You told her, didn't you?" Rebekah asked in a fascinated tone as her brother joined her at her table.

"Yeah," Klaus admitted.

"You must _really_ like her then," Rebekah commented.

Klaus hated letting himself be vulnerable in any situation and he never told anybody about Henrik. The only people who really knew was their family and maybe a few other people who remembered the incident from the time.

"I do," He replied as he looked over to where Caroline was eagerly high-fiving Tyler after making a difficult shot. "…I think I'm falling in love with her."


	9. Chapter 9

The next day Caroline spent a large portion of her day silently worrying about Klaus. She wasn't quite sure of how or when Klaus had gotten to her, but all that she knew was that she couldn't stop wondering how he was doing.

Even if he was completely annoying and obnoxious to be around sometimes, no one deserved to go through any of what he had told her about.

* * *

As soon as school was over, Caroline decided to go check on him. She had seen how bad of condition he had been in during the last few days. If that was what he was like before then, then she couldn't imagine how he was going to be that day. The anniversary of Henrik's death would have to be even worse than things had already been.

* * *

Rebekah was the one to answer the door after Caroline had knocked. She hadn't been at school that day presumably because she had decided to stay home to try and help her brother.

Caroline wasn't quite sure of what to say as the other blonde looked at her expectantly.

"Klaus told me about Henrik," She commented.

She immediately felt stupid afterwards as she realized that she had still provided no explanation of what exactly she was doing there.

"I know," Rebekah responded. "My brother seems to trust you a lot more than I ever would."

"I'm not going to tell people about it," Caroline defended herself with a frown.

"You'd better be telling the truth," Rebekah responded. "Because you couldn't even begin to imagine how much the fact that he told you means."

Although Caroline honestly thought that she did, Rebekah was right about that.

"Yes, I can," Caroline told her.

"No _,_ you _can't_ ," Rebekah said sternly. "Just because you know about Henrik, that doesn't mean that you know about Nik… You just make assumptions about him and see whatever you want to instead of actually getting to know him or giving him any real chance."

Caroline wasn't sure of what to say to the angry girl that stood in front of her. Even if she wasn't sure of what she was going to say, she opened her mouth to speak anyways.

"And you don't just make assumptions about me?" Caroline demanded.

"It's not assuming when there's clear evidence of how much of a self-obsessed little-" Rebekah began to retort before she was cut off by another voice.

"Rebekah." Elijah warned as he walked over. "…What's going on?"

"I came to see Klaus," Caroline piped up, very glad that Elijah had come to her rescue.

Although she hadn't encountered him for long, he had quickly become her favourite one of Klaus's siblings. He had stopped Klaus from drinking himself sick and had actually been kind to her instead of calling her a whore or acting like Rebekah.

"She doesn't even care about him," Rebekah complained to her brother. "She's only here to try and make herself feel better."

Elijah gave his little sister a cautioning glance before turning back to face Caroline.

"Come in, I'll take you to him," Elijah told her.

As soon as Elijah's back was turned Caroline smirked triumphantly over at a glaring Rebekah.

* * *

Elijah led Caroline to the doorway of Klaus's room. He was sitting inside with his head in his hands while Kol was sitting in a chair next to it.

"If you make one more joke I'm going to staple your mouth shut," Klaus threatened.

"I was just trying to lighten the mood," Kol defended himself. "I thought that you could use a little humour… Although a pretty little blonde might do the trick."

Kol looked over at Caroline with a slight smirk before turning back towards his brother.

Klaus looked up, surprised and confused by his brother's words. He didn't smile at Caroline like he usually did as he looked over at her.

A frown formed on Caroline's lips as she looked over at him. She had never seen him in worse condition, not even when she had been helping him home while he was wasted. The circles under his eyes were even darker than before and he somehow looked both like he hadn't slept in a month as well as like he had just woken up. The paleness of his skin only accentuated the bags under his eyes further. His entire appearance was bedraggled and broken looking.

It was like she had just stepped into the room of someone completely different than the arrogant man that he had been when she had first met him.

"How are you feeling?" Caroline asked even though it was clear that he wasn't doing well.

"Please don't ask that," Klaus told her. "They've been asking me that all day… I've barely slept in a week and I constantly have to have one of my siblings babysitting me. How do you think that I'm doing?"

"Okay, so maybe that wasn't the smartest question…" She trailed off. "But I just wanted to know if you're okay… Which is another stupid thing to try to ask."

She glanced nervously over at Kol. Somehow his being there was making things even more difficult for her.

Kol seemed to debate with himself for a minute before getting up and muttering, "I'm going downstairs." It wasn't like he seemed to be helping at all anyways…

She watched him go before turning back towards Klaus.

"I was worried about you," She admitted. "…I still am."

"Why?" Klaus asked.

Caroline's frown deepened. She didn't exactly know how to answer that question. There was the obvious reason of it being the anniversary of Henrik's death, but that still didn't particularly explain why she cared… Why that was something that made her concerned for him.

"We're supposed to be friends, aren't we?" She asked him in response.

"I thought that was just something that you agreed to in the hopes that I would stop flirting with you and leave you alone for a while," Klaus responded. "Wasn't the whole idea just humouring me occasionally?"

"At first," Caroline admitted. "But then I started to get used to you and I didn't like it when you started acting weird… And now you're kind of growing on me."

"Now that you pity me and think of me as your charity case?" He asked her although it was clear that he was sure that the answer was yes.

"No, now that you're showing me the real you, even if it is damaged," Caroline replied. "I like you a lot more when you're opening up to me instead of just hiding behind your walls and trying to deflect everything."

"Damaged, that's a nice way to put broken," He muttered.

"Who isn't broken?" Caroline asked him.

"If normal people are broken, then what does that make me?" Klaus asked.

Caroline frowned, unsure of what she was supposed to say in that situation. Instead of making any attempt to answer his question, she sat down on the side of the bed and asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not even a little," He responded.

"So then what do you want to do?" She asked.

"Nothing," Klaus replied. "…Maybe you should go. I'm not exactly in a social kind of mood."

Caroline could see the walls going back up and she didn't like it. But still, she didn't really seem to be helping at all… And why would he want to talk to her of all people about it?

"If that's what you want," She told him.

"It is," He told her. He wasn't up to being around anyone at that point and honestly, he didn't like her seeing him like that.


	10. Chapter 10

_"…Maybe you should go. I'm not exactly in a social kind of mood."_

_Caroline could see the walls going back up and she didn't like it. But still, she didn't really seem to be helping at all… And why would he want to talk to her of all people about it?_

_"If that's what you want," She told him._

_"It is," He told her. He wasn't up to being around anyone at that point and honestly, he didn't like her seeing him like that._

Caroline hesitated halfway to the door before she turned around to face him.

"Alright, I'll go in a second if you still want me to," She said. "But first I want to ask you something."

Klaus had a bad feeling about that, he was fairly sure that he was not going to like whatever question she might have… He was sure that it would be something that he wouldn't want to answer or even think about.

Caroline took it as an okay when he neither said that it was alright nor tried to stop her.

"…What was he like?" She asked.

Caroline knew that Klaus was spending the day only remembering the bad and she wondered if it might help for him to think about some of the good stuff with Henrik too.

Klaus was a little taken aback by the question. Never had he expected that to be the question that she wanted to ask him.

"He was energetic… All the time," Klaus told her as he looked down at his hands. "And he was happy about ninety-eight percent of the time. And the other two percent he could get whatever he wanted… Or actually he could all of the time."

He smiled a little to himself which brought a matching smile to her lips.

"I don't think that he actually ever successfully got into trouble once," Klaus continued. "And he used that to his advantage… He used to cover for all of us too and said that he was the one who did pretty much everything bad."

Caroline sat back down next to Klaus on the bed.

"He knew how to use the cuteness factor to his advantage and he abused that more than a little," He told her. "And he used to be the only one that could cheer Rebekah up when she was crying, which happened a lot because Kol used to drive her insane teasing her."

Somehow that last part didn't overly surprise Caroline even with how little she knew about Kol.

"He used to have a lot of nightmares and then he'd wake up afraid of the dark and come and sneak into my room in the middle of the night," Klaus told her. "He claimed that it was because he knew that he'd be safe with me-"

He smiled weakly at the irony of that as he felt tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure that actually he just didn't want Kol making fun of him and he knew that Rebekah would tell people," Klaus said with a weak laugh. "And he was too afraid to go to Elijah or Finn or my step-dad."

"That still means that he trusted you the most with it," Caroline pointed out quietly.

"Yeah, I know that he trusted me," Klaus said, thinking that it only made what happened so much worse.

He felt a tear run down his cheek and quickly turned to look away from her as he wiped at it with his sleeve.

"It's okay to cry you know," Caroline told him gently.

She could feel the sting of tears at the back of her own eyes from his words and the pain that she could tell that he was feeling.

"I don't want to cry in front of you," He replied.

"Why not?" Caroline asked him.

"Do you usually enjoy having an audience while you're crying?" Klaus challenged.

He had a point; she also didn't like having people around her when she was crying.

"I guess not…" She replied quietly.


	11. Chapter 11

The next day Caroline found herself worried about Klaus once again as she went to school. She debated texting him, but didn't want to wake him up if he was actually getting some sleep in finally.

When she passed Rebekah on her way into the cafeteria at lunch time, she debated asking her how Klaus was doing, but decided against it. She figured that she probably would just end up starting a fight and not even getting any real answer. Besides, the fact that she was back at school instead of at home with him again said that he had to be doing at least a little better, didn't it?

* * *

Rebekah didn't say anything as Caroline walked past her table, but apparently her facial expression spoke for her.

"Did you ever consider that the reason that you two get on each other's nerves so much is because you're so similar?" Stefan asked her.

Rebekah wrinkled her nose up, "Don't even say that. I am nothing like her… And you just implied that Nik is following around a girl that's 'so similar' to me, which is disgusting."

"That's not what I meant," He defended. "I'm just saying that you're both super competitive with each other and participate in a lot of the same things."

"So what?" Rebekah questioned.

"You're just a lot more similar than you think," Stefan commented. "You both play the tough act and try to pretend that nothing hurts you, even though it does."

"Right. And you're the expert on this because…?" She challenged.

"I used to hang out with that group when I first moved here," Stefan responded with a shrug. "And she's not that bad."

He was still somewhat friends with Tyler and Matt since they were all on the football team together. Rebekah had known about that, but not about the rest of the group.

She grabbed the nearest food off of her plate and threw it at his face.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"For listening to me complain about them all the time and not once telling me before now that you used to be friends with them," She responded, feeling as if she was about start blushing at any moment.

Before he could respond a girl came and hovered at the edge of their table, seeming to be unable to move or speak.

"Do you want something?" Rebekah asked. "Or did you just come to stare?"

She knew that had come off as more bitchy than she had intended it to, but she couldn't quite make herself feel bad about it. She was already in a bad enough mood and it was nice to have somewhere to let a little of that anger out.

She ignored the look that Stefan was giving her as the girl nervously sputtered out, "I just wanted to ask, I mean everybody's been talking about it, but nobody really knows- I mean there's theories, sure, but…"

"What?" Rebekah asked with an edge to her tone. She was not in the mood to try to figure out what the hell this girl was talking about as she nervously tiptoed around the subject. "Just spit it out."

"Rebekah," Stefan said in a warning tone.

She rolled her eyes at him, but then gave the girl a slightly friendlier look as she waited for her to finish her question.

"I just wanted to ask why your brother was getting so drunk," The girl said. "Everybody's talking about it, but it doesn't really seem like anyone knows… And now he just kind of disappeared for a couple of days when he used to be at the Grill every night and-"

Rebekah's death glare made her stop talking. She didn't have to ask which brother the girl was talking about.

"I have zero interest in further fueling the gossip about my brother," Rebekah told her. "And I'm sick of everybody here prying into his life."

She continued to give the girl an icy glare until she was halfway across the cafeteria.

"That wasn't harsh at all," Stefan muttered sarcastically.

Rebekah rolled her eyes once again as she groaned dramatically before she complained, "I'm so sick of them. All of them… Your old friend, Caroline, came over last night to play with Nik's emotions some more. And they're all just looking to be the first one with a story about him."

"So you're just going to treat everyone like that because you assume that they're going to be horrible?" He questioned.

"Just forget about it," Rebekah muttered. "I'm just cranky from everything that's been going on."

* * *

Caroline was sitting at home, trying to get her homework done, when she couldn't stand it for any longer. She had to text him.

* * *

Kol was walking down the hallway when he heard a cell phone beeping.

He followed the sound into Klaus's room to find his brother's phone sitting on top of a dresser with the light flashing. Kol looked over at his brother to see that he was dead asleep, snoring lightly.

Kol smiled a little as he picked up his brother's phone and headed out of the room before opening up the text.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_How are you today?_

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Why does Nik have you as 'Go to Hell' in his phone?_

_Are you some kind of stalker or something?_

**From Go to Hell:**

_No, it's Caroline. Why do you have his phone?_

* * *

She was surprised that Klaus hadn't changed her name in his phone, although it wasn't like she had changed his in hers either.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_He's asleep still and it was beeping._

* * *

Caroline had been home from school for almost an hour, so that was more than a little surprising to hear that he was still asleep, especially when he had been barely sleeping all week.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_Still? Well at least he's actually sleeping._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Yeah… Guess which sibling I am._

**From Go to Hell:**

_You're Kol._

* * *

Kol frowned a little when she responded back so definitively and immediately, she hadn't even given a second's hesitation to try and consider it.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Well that wasn't as fun as I was hoping._

**From Go to Hell:**

_You called him Nik, so it was either you or Rebekah. And Rebekah hates me, so she would have just been yelling at me._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Rebekah doesn't tend to get along with other girls, especially ones that Nik pays more attention to than her._

**From Go to Hell:**

_Why?_

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_They used to be a lot closer before he left. She just got him back and she doesn't handle sharing very well._

* * *

Caroline thought about that for a second, wondering what to say back.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_So what's even going on with you two? Obviously he likes you, but I've seen you both looking like you hate him and like you like him since I got here…_

* * *

Kol looked up as his brother walked into the room.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_We're friends, but it's kind of complicated._

* * *

"What are you doing with my phone?" Klaus asked.

He seemed too exhausted to even be properly upset about it.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Wow, the cliché rejection was so strong there that I actually feel rejected when it isn't even me that you're talking about. He's up now._

* * *

"Talking to your not girlfriend," Kol said as he looked up from the phone. He was surprised when that didn't earn him anything more than a nod.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_Did he have more nightmares?_

* * *

"She wants to know if you had nightmares again," Kol said, looking up at his brother again.

"Nowhere near as bad," Klaus responded. "Basically I had one and then managed to sleep for the rest of the night."

"And day," Kol added, causing his brother to give him a look of confusion.

"What time is it?" Klaus asked.

"Quarter to five," Kol replied as he typed out a text.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_One and then he slept like an overgrown baby with stubble._

* * *

Two mornings later, Klaus seemed to have majorly recovered. At the very least he was putting on a good show and managing to sleep normally again.

Jeremy walked into the Mystic Grill on his way to meet his sister when he noticed Klaus and someone that he hadn't seen before sitting at a table with two giant bowls of nachos.

"Dude, how stoned are you?" He asked as he paused at the table.

Klaus had gotten his appetite back and seemed to be trying to make up for a week of barely eating in one day, so Kol was pigging out with him, just glad that his brother was getting back to normal.

"Maybe I just like nachos," Kol responded innocently as he looked up at Jeremy with a slight smirk.

Jeremy gave him a look that showed that he didn't particularly believe him, but didn't say anything before he walked away again.

Not long after, Rebekah walked in and went to sit with her brothers and began to eat with them.

"You're going to get fat, you know," Kol told her, earning himself a glare.

"You're an ass, you know," She retorted.


	12. Chapter 12

At lunch time, Caroline was surprised when Rebekah pulled her aside before she could make it to the cafeteria.

"What? Come to finish that insult from the other day?" Caroline asked her.

"No," Rebekah told her. "Look, it's not really a secret that I don't like you. Or that you don't like me for that matter. But for some reason Nik does like you."

Caroline was less than eager to have that conversation and just responded with, "Yeah, I know. But thanks for the recap."

When she turned to walk away, Rebekah stopped her by speaking up once again.

"Do you even like him at all?" She asked, causing Caroline to turn around and give her a look of disbelief. "Because from what I've seen, you don't even like him, you just keep him around for the attention."

"That isn't true," Caroline told her. "He gets on my nerves sometimes, but I do like him." There was the tiniest fraction of a pause before she thought to add, "As a friend."

"Well to me, it seems like you hated him for no reason while you knew absolutely nothing about him," Rebekah responded. "And you act like he's the one who has so many walls up, when really you refuse to let him in and he walks around telling you how he feels."

"Look, I get it," Caroline said, feeling anger boiling up inside her. "We don't get along and you don't want anyone, especially me, stealing your time with him."

"No, you _don't_ get it," The other girl said sternly. "You think that you know how much he cares about you and you think that you understand how much it means that he told you, but you don't. Nik doesn't tell anyone about Henrik. And I don't mean that he doesn't tell many people, I mean that he doesn't tell _anyone_. He's _only_ told you. The only other people who know just remember it from when it happened."

Caroline was taken aback by that, but quickly tried to cover it up.

"And for a long time he didn't even admit that he was having the nightmares," Rebekah continued pointedly. "He only did when he couldn't try to hide it for any longer. But you… He told you right away of his own free will and he's talked more to you about it than he has to anyone else, including his own family. And you are so oblivious to everything that it hurts."

The other girl was unable to completely mask the surprise on her face as she defended, "It's not my fault. I didn't ask him to tell me. And shouldn't it be a good thing that he's actually willing to talk to someone about it?"

"It _should_ be," Rebekah agreed. "But it depends on the person that he talks to. You don't even realize the fact that if you betray his trust or hurt him that his walls are going to go right back up and double in size."

"I'm not going to hurt him or betray his trust." Caroline said angrily through gritted teeth. "He's my friend and I already told you that I care about him."

"I really hope that you're telling the truth," Rebekah responded before she turned to walk into the cafeteria.

Caroline followed behind her, thinking that she had wasted enough of her lunch hour on the other blonde, only to stop in shock next to an already still Rebekah.

It was hard to determine who was more shocked, Rebekah and Caroline that Stefan was sitting at Caroline's usual table or those at table about the fact that Rebekah and Caroline had entered the cafeteria together.

Stefan had walked in with Matt, who had been in his last class before lunch. They had been talking as they walked and somehow Stefan had ended up at Matt's table, which probably had a lot to do with the fact that Rebekah was nowhere to be found anyways.

Caroline and Rebekah quickly composed themselves and then walked to sit on opposite ends of the table with Rebekah next to Stefan and Caroline next to Bonnie.

Stefan had been hoping that Rebekah would at least make some form of attempt at making friends with the others at the table, but instead she mostly just acted as if they weren't there.

* * *

"You know, you don't have to always hang out here in the hopes that I'll show up. You could just ask me to meet you here."

Caroline turned around to see Klaus smirking over at her and she instantly noticed just how much better he looked. Clearly he'd been sleeping better and for once she was happy to see that egotistical smirk spread across his lips.

Although Elijah had told her that this happened every year and that Klaus was usually back to normal after about a week, she still hadn't at all been expecting him to look that much better. She hadn't really believed that it was possible after how broken he had looked the last time that she had seen him.

A wide smile formed on Caroline's lips as she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him in for a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder, unable to believe how relieved she was that he was feeling better. As she held him tight, she wondered when Klaus had weaseled his way into meaning so much to her.

He chuckled a bit as he hugged her back. "I was expecting an eye roll at that, but I'll take this instead."

During the last hug that he had gotten from her, he had been too upset to properly appreciate it or even reciprocate it. But now he was able to hug her close and thought to himself that he'd like to hold her like that forever.

As she released her hold on him, she told him, "I'm pretty sure that you're the one who comes here looking for me."

He shrugged innocently. "Maybe."

The smile on his lips faltered slightly when he noticed that her lips had transformed from a grin into a straight line as she seemed to be thinking about something.

"What's wrong, Love?" He asked.

"I have to tell you something," She said after a brief pause.

The serious look on her face made him more than a little nervous.


	13. Chapter 13

Caroline led Klaus by the hand until they reached a table that she thought was far enough away from where her friends were sitting waiting for her.

Once they were seated, she seemed to have lost her nerve a little as she tried to figure out how to say what she wanted to. She stared down at the top of the table as though the little scratches and dents in its surface somehow held whatever answer she was looking for.

"You're making me nervous, Sweetheart," Klaus commented.

"No, it's not anything that's-" She cut herself off so that she could start over as her eyes flicked up from the table to meet his. "You're not the only one here with walls, but you are the only one that's really ever taken them down and that's not fair. So I want to tell you about something."

She hesitated, suddenly wondering if this was such a good idea or not, as he remained silently waiting for her to continue.

"The reason that I'm so… I don't know…. Afraid, I guess?" She struggled to try and find the right word. "The reason that I'm so afraid of people leaving is because a few months ago my dad just disappeared overnight. He was too afraid to even admit that he was leaving or see our reactions, so he just snuck out in the middle of the night.

"And he didn't even leave a note or anything; he just left and didn't come back. And the worst part is that he didn't even make the slightest effort to try and fix things with my mom, he just ran away," Caroline continued. "And apparently I'm not enough to even consider trying to stay for… I'm barely even enough for a two month late 'sorry I missed your birthday' card. And I know that this all must sound really stupid compared to everything that you went through-"

Klaus had to cut her off there as he very seriously told her, "It doesn't sound stupid, Love. And what happened to me doesn't change anything about what happened to you and how much it affects you."

Caroline smiled a little and playfully hit him in the chest.

"What was that for?" He asked, pretending to be offended, although he was fairly sure that the grin on his lips was giving away that he wasn't.

"Why are you such a jerk sometimes and then so sweet other times?" She asked in response.

"I like to keep things interesting," Klaus told her with a smirk.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tyler was glaring over at the pair from where he stood talking with Matt. For someone that Caroline was just pretending to be friends with, she sure seemed to be laughing awfully hard at whatever douchey thing Klaus had just said.

* * *

Kol walked into the Grill on his way to meet his brother, only to see that Klaus was already a little pre-occupied with Caroline. The next thing that he noticed was the table where Elena, Bonnie, and the guy who had made the stoner comment, who Kol had heard Elena calling him 'Jer' afterwards, were sitting. There was an empty chair, so the youngest Mikaelson brother decided to invite himself to join them.

He sat down in the chair and shot the others as dazzling of a smile as he could manage.

"…Hi Kol?" Bonnie said, seeming more than a little confused by his presence.

"You have an attitude… I like it," Kol told her before he turned his attention towards Elena. "And you have gorgeous eyes to match your laugh."

Jeremy groaned from where he was sitting next to Kol as he let his head drop to the table, clearly not enjoying listening to this guy hit on both his sister and Bonnie in the same breath.

"Don't worry, Jer," Kol said with a smirk. "You have pretty eyes too."

Jeremy picked his head up from the table to give the other man a confused glare. When had this guy figured out his name and why was he calling him Jer?

"Wait, you two know each other?" Elena asked.

"Not really," Kol responded with a casual shrug. "I mean there was the one druggie conversation, but…"

"The one _what_?" Elena asked through gritted teeth as she glared over at Jeremy, who was currently glaring at Kol. "Are you using again?"

Jeremy groaned dramatically once again before he turned to Kol and sarcastically said, "Thanks for that."

The youngest Gilbert really did not need Elena babying him and bringing that stuff up in front of Bonnie and some random stranger.

"Jer, answer the question," Elena said sternly.

"No, I'm not using again," He said, annoyed that she was even asking him.

"Then why were you having druggie talk?" Elena challenged. "Don't lie to me."

Kol sat there completely stunned by how much his words had blown up in his face. He hadn't been expecting Jeremy to have had a past drug problem, and he definitely was not expecting to find out that Elena was his over-protective sister.

"He wasn't-" Kol tried weakly, but was instantly drowned out by Jeremy's voice.

"I'm not lying to you," The other man said. "But thanks for believing me, Elena… I'll see you at home."

With that, Jeremy got up from the table and headed towards the exit. Not only did he not want to be there anymore, but he had also lost his appetite.


	14. Chapter 14

"I should go," Caroline said a little reluctantly. "I was supposed to be meeting Elena and Bonnie here and they're waiting for me."

"And not-your-boyfriend over there looks like he's about two seconds from coming over here and killing me for talking to you," Klaus commented.

"Could you stop calling him that?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

Of course he'd just had to go piss her off right when she was starting to think that she might be able to let herself have feelings for him.

"Why?" He questioned with that smirk that she hated so much. "I mean he isn't your boyfriend, as much as he hates to admit that."

"Yeah, and neither are you," Caroline pointed out defensively. "And I think you hate admitting it a hell of a lot more than he does…" She paused for a moment before adding, "This is why I can't let myself have feelings for you. It's like there are two completely versions of you. It's like Nik Mikaelson is this sweet, decent guy that- okay, maybe I could see myself with. But then as soon as I think that, the walls go up and the Klaus Morgan side always shows up again. Too bad he's an arrogant jerk that I could never let myself be with."

"I can't always have my walls down and be open with everyone," He told her.

"That doesn't mean that you have to be a jerk to everyone all the time," She pointed out. "You could at least pretend to even remotely like my friends or try to get along with them."

"There are two versions of you too," Klaus told her. "There's the strong and guarded, defensive Caroline that doesn't let anyone walk over her or get in her way. And then there's the Caroline that cares so much about other people and is so easy to talk to… I like both versions of you, too bad you can't say the same thing."

Caroline didn't know what to say, so she sat there for a few seconds longer in a stunned silence before she muttered, "I should really go."

"So should I," He agreed as she moved to get up.

The pair walked over to the table where Bonnie, Elena, and Kol were all sitting. Kol almost instantly got up when he saw the look on his older brother's face.

As he stood, he leaned to whisper in Caroline's ear, "He's been drawing you."

The blonde shot him a questioning look, but didn't ask for any further information since Klaus and her friends were standing right there.

As she sat down, Kol shot her a departing smirk on his way as he followed Klaus to another table a safe distance away.

Once he was out of earshot, Bonnie asked, "So what was with that hug?"

Caroline shut her eyes and inhaled deeply before opening them again. Now that she knew that her friends had seen it, she was a little embarrassed about how eagerly she had hugged Klaus.

"It was just a hug," She defended, although she knew that her friends weren't going to give up that easily. "I hadn't seen him since-" She quickly cut herself off. "I just hadn't seen him in a while."

"You mean since he was all mopey and drunk?" Elena asked, although the question was clearly rhetorical.

"Or was it when he explained the reason that he was getting wasted to you and nobody else, even though there are pictures of it all over the internet with people trying to figure out what's going on," Bonnie added.

"And whatever it is you don't even trust us with it," Elena pointed out. "Besides the fact that it was definitely not 'just a hug'."

"We're just friends, okay?" Caroline questioned. "Now I vote for a subject change."

* * *

That night Caroline had a strangely difficult time falling asleep, since she was too busy thinking about what Klaus had said about liking both sides of her and what Kol had said about Klaus apparently drawing her.

She felt bad for getting mad at Klaus at the Grill, but at the same time he needed to stop treating her friends like that.

* * *

The next day, Klaus was sitting at the Mystic Grill in the hopes of running into Caroline. When she walked inside, he began to speak to her as soon as she was within earshot.

"I have a proposition for you."

"And what would that be?" Caroline asked as she turned to look at him with a slight smile.

"You want me to get along with your friends?" He asked. "Fine, then how about you tell me a time and place. I'll show you just how friendly I can be, even to Tyler."

He called the lapdog by his name, since he knew that it would make Caroline happier and more likely to agree.

She debated for a second before a grin broke out on her lips and she told him, "Monday, I'll text you when."

* * *

Later that day, Kol was wandering around town looking for something entertaining to do and eventually just ended up in the Mystic Grill, where he noticed Jeremy playing a game of pool by himself. He headed over to the pool table to go talk to him.

When Jeremy noticed the Mikaelson lingering nearby, he coldly asked, "What do you want?"

Kol hesitated for a moment before telling him, "I'm sorry about yesterday… I didn't know that you used to do drugs... I also didn't know that Elena was your sister, or that she would react that way."

"Well that's me, ex-junkie loser with a sister who tries to be my parent," Jeremy commented as he took another shot. "But, hey, at least I don't hit on whole tables of people at once."

The youngest Gilbert had been trying to get Kol to go away, but instead the Mikaelson cracked a grin at his comment.

"It could have been worse. At least I didn't just use one line on everyone," Kol said in an amused tone.

Jeremy laughed a little despite himself before he asked, "Do you want to play?"

"Sure," Kol responded. "I don't have anything better to do."

"Thanks," Jeremy said in a sarcastic tone as his smile widened a little.

* * *

When Monday came around, Rebekah couldn't stand the girls at school for any longer. So at lunch time, when an especially annoying girl sat down next to her and started trying to suck up to her while insisting that she introduce her to Klaus, the blonde snapped.

"Why don't you just introduce yourself to him and get out of my face?" Rebekah demanded angrily, her voice loud enough to gather the attention of everyone else in the cafeteria. When she noticed everyone else staring, she decided to address the rest of the room as well. "In case you people haven't figured it out yet, I'm not planning on ever introducing any of you to my brother, especially when all you do is pester me about it. Personally, I think that you should all just leave him the hell alone. But if you want to meet him so badly, why don't you just go talk to him for yourself? It's not like he's hiding. And I certainly won't be putting in a good word for any of you annoying little pests. So why don't you retreat back to your group of bottom-feeding friends and leave me alone?"

The girl, Rebekah thought that her name was Tiki, rolled her eyes and walked away as groups of people began to whisper to each other.

"I'm so sick of all of these bitches that won't leave me alone," Rebekah muttered under her breath.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that the only bitch here is you," Stefan commented before getting up and walking over to Caroline's table to go sit down next to Matt.

Rebekah gritted her teeth as she heard the girls at the next table laughing loudly as they whispered about her. She stood up to storm out of the lunchroom, leaving her food behind.

On her way out, she heard one of the girls saying, "She thinks that she's _so_ special just because her brother's famous."

Rebekah kept walking, unable to get out of the cafeteria fast enough.

* * *

When school was finally over, Rebekah rushed home after a long and painful afternoon. She closed the door and leaned back against it, shutting her eyes and sighing heavily as she tried to keep the tears from forming.

"What's your problem?"

She looked up to see Kol standing a few feet away from her with a smirk on his lips.

"Did some other girl at school where the same shirt as you?" He asked in an amused tone. "Or, I know, someone must have told you that they don't like your shoes."

"Go to Hell, Kol," Rebekah told him angrily.

The last thing that she needed at that point was her youngest brother mocking her.

"That's not very nice," He commented in an amused tone. "I think that someone owes me an apology… Just because you're having your little female meltdown over a broken nail or whatever it is, that doesn't mean that I should get in trouble for it."

"Everything's always a joke with you, isn't it, Kol?" She questioned. "Even when you're the only one laughing."

With that, she turned around and opened up the door to walk right back out.

Once she was gone, Kol frowned to himself. He'd just been teasing his sister; he hadn't been expecting her to get that upset over it.

* * *

"What's he doing here?" Tyler asked as Klaus approached the table.

"I invited him," Caroline answered before her tone turned more warning. "So play nice."

She hadn't told her friends beforehand, since she thought that it would impair her ability to actually convince them to show up… Or at least her ability to make one of them show up…

Klaus smiled at Caroline as he sat down at the table where she, Elena, Bonnie, and Tyler were already seated.

* * *

Rebekah knew that she couldn't stay at home and listen to Kol's constant taunting and she ended up wandering on foot until she found herself at the Mystic Grill, hoping that the bartender was willing to serve girls who were underage.

She got about two steps inside before a couple of guys from school that had been on their way out stopped to smirk at her and ask, "What are you doing here, princess? Everybody knows that you don't have friends, not even Stefan Salvatore anymore, because you're just sooo much better than all of the rest of us."

Her friend snickered and added, "How long do you think it'll be before your brother becomes completely irrelevant and you're just another peasant like us?"

When the pair exited the Grill, Rebekah remained frozen in place as she tried desperately to hold back the tears.

* * *

Klaus was laughing at a story that Elena was telling about how Caroline had bossed everyone around while they were organizing a school dance, when his gaze flickered past the door of the restaurant.

Even in that tiny glimpse, he'd been able to recognize the look on his sister's face from across the large room. A frown quickly covered his grin as he, without a word, got up and headed over to her.

"What happened?" He asked her quietly.

Rebekah blinked, trying to stop the tears in her eyes from falling as she responded, "Everyone hates me… Even Stefan now."

"Don't you think that you're being a tad dramatic?" He asked in a gentle tone. "You know that's not true."

"Yes, it is," She said more urgently. "Ever since you came back to town, people at school have been driving me insane. And now they're acting like I'm such a horrible monster just because I don't want to give them your number, or introduce them to you, or tell them your secrets. And now they all hate me and Stefan hates me for yelling at them and I don't have a single friend or even a single person who can stand me at that school."

Her words were like a blow to the gut to Klaus as he realized that this was his fault.

"I'm sorry," He said as he pulled his sister in for an embrace.

"Why does everyone have to be so horrible?" She asked as she let her head rest on her brother's chest.

"I don't know," Klaus told her honestly. "Do you want to go home?"

"No," Rebekah said sternly. "Kol's being even more of a jerk than usual. If I go home then I'm just letting people scare me off so that I can get mocked by my own brother instead."

"So then do you want us to get a new table or come back with me to Caroline's?" He asked her as he released her from his grip.

"Great, my options are to either sit with my brother and prove that I have no friends or sit with a bunch of people who hate me and wouldn't want me there anyways," Rebekah muttered sarcastically.

Klaus chuckled a little, only to receive a glare from his younger sister.

He remained smirking a little as he said, "Sorry… But you do have to choose an option at some point, instead of just complaining about every one that I give you."

"Fine, we'll go sit with Caroline and her stupid friends," Rebekah grumbled unenthusiastically.

* * *

When Klaus returned to the table and Rebekah sat down next to him, no one made any comment about it. Instead, they tried to quickly eliminate the awkward silence as Bonnie asked Tyler about their last football game.

Klaus didn't hear any of the other man's response, possibly because he was too distracted by his upset sister or maybe because he just really didn't care.

He, however, had no problem hearing it when the girl who had been bothering Rebekah at lunch walked past their table and loudly said, "I'm surprised that Rebekah's even gracing them with her presence, considering she thinks that she's so much better than everyone just because of who her brother is. Like that should just make us all worship her."

"She's probably just trying to guard her brother from all of us 'bottom-feeding pests'," The girl that was walking with her agreed with a laugh.

Rebekah sensed what was coming from how rigid her brother's body language went before he even turned around.

"Nik, don't," She told him.

Klaus, who had already turned halfway around, ignored his sister's plead.

"Actually," He said in an angry growl that Caroline hadn't ever heard anything even remotely close to out of him. "My sister doesn't think that she's better than all of you." He stood up out of his chair and was standing with his face so close to one of the girls' faces that she was flinching back from his words. "And the fact that she didn't even want you to know that she was related to me _probably_ means that she isn't trying to use that to make you treat her any differently. And do you want to hear the really ironic thing? Rebekah is better than you people, but she's too busy worrying about what you think of her to even realize that."

"Nik, stop!" Rebekah hissed at him angrily. Although she had missed her brother's protectiveness, she also despised it in that moment.

Klaus glanced down at her for an instant before his eyes flickered back up and he told the girls, "But why don't you go back to trying to deflect your superiority complex onto my sister if that's what you find interesting in your pathetic little lives."

With that he turned and sat back down as the girls walked away, whispering to each other.

Rebekah frowned as she thought to herself that all that Klaus had done was made things worse for her. She figured that now they were just going to claim that she needed to hide behind her brother and have him fight her battles for her because she was too weak to even do so herself.

A few seconds of thick silence passed before Bonnie commented, "Tiki's always been a bitch. Remember when she used to torture Elena?"

"Yeah, until you confronted her about it. Then she just started calling you the Wicked Bitch of the West," Elena responded with a slight laugh.

"Good thing _someone_ gave her the nickname of Pukezilla and got the whole school talking about that instead," Tyler commented with a smirk, causing Caroline to burst into laughter.

Klaus smirked over at her since she was clearly the culprit.

"People just needed something else to talk about, so I thought that reminding everyone of the story of Pukezilla would be a nice change of discussion," Caroline responded with an innocent shrug. "And that's still the freaking grossest field trip that I've ever been on." She turned to face Rebekah and Klaus before adding, "When we were in elementary school, our class went on this field trip to the museum where Tiki projectile vomited all over the teacher about ten minutes after we got there. It was so disgusting."

Rebekah smirked a little and was surprised to find that she was actually enjoying listening to the conversation that Caroline and her friends were having.


	15. Chapter 15

The next day at school, Rebekah spent her entire morning feeling on the verge of snapping as she tried to block out the voices and stares of everyone else. She thought that things had gotten even worse, although she figured that it could easily just feel that way.

When lunchtime came around, Rebekah refused to hide and admit defeat. If she was going to sit by herself, she was going to do it with a little self-respect.

As Rebekah made her way to the table where she usually sat with Stefan, Tiki commented, "Oh look, it's Bitchy Bekah on her way to go sit with all of her friends… Wait, that's right. She doesn't have any. Even Stefan Salvatore can't stand her anymore."

A smirk formed on the blonde's lips as she stopped in her tracks and turned to face Tiki.

"What are you grinning at?" Tiki questioned. "Are you just happy to even have anyone talking to you?"

"That must be it," Rebekah responded sarcastically as many people at nearby tables turned to watch. "Because I'm just so _honoured_ to have captured the attention of Pukezilla… I mean if we're exchanging nicknames." She shrugged.

Tiki's smirk crumbled as she asked, "How do you know about that? You didn't even go to our school then."

"You're right, I don't have any friends," Rebekah responded in a satisfied tone. "But even _I_ have heard about you upchucking all over your teacher. I hear it was quite revolting. It's not really surprising that people still call you that behind your back all the time."

Tiki looked like a deer in the headlights as Rebekah walked off to sit by herself at her usual table. She'd been sitting for a few seconds before she noticed Caroline shooting her an approving smile.

* * *

People were just starting to gradually look away from Tiki and Rebekah when Stefan walked into the cafeteria. He was walking to go sit over with Matt and Tyler when someone stopped him by grabbing onto his arm.

He looked down and was more than a little surprised to find that it was Tiki.

"Why don't you come sit with us Stefan?" She asked as flirtily as she could manage. "I hear that you have nowhere to sit and there's _plenty_ of room right next to me."

There was not plenty of room next to her; he would have to sit with absolutely no personal space. Besides, he could see right through the act and knew that it was just an attempt to pull him into the fight that she was having with Rebekah.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," Stefan said quickly before moving to walk away from the table.

Tiki, who had already been flustered enough from her encounter with Rebekah, quickly decided to turn the embarrassment onto someone else as she loudly questioned, "What, are you gay or something?"

"No, actually I'm not," Stefan responded as he turned back to face her. "But I'm also really not interested in you or being a part of your stupid plan to get back at Rebekah for not introducing you to Klaus. In fact, I'd actually rather date Klaus than you. And considering the fact that I'm the only one of us who's had an actual conversation with him, I'm pretty sure that I'd have a hell of a lot better chance with him than you would."

Little did Stefan know that the night before Tiki had unintentionally ensured that Klaus hated her.

Tiki turned her head to face Rebekah as she loudly commented, "Looks like you can't even get a guy friend without him only using you to try and get into your brother's pants."

Stefan immediately turned to also face Rebekah and commented, "You were right, she is a bitch."

He seemed to consider with himself for a second or two before he moved to go sit in his regular spot across from Rebekah, who grinned at him and commented, "Actually, Stefan, I'm pretty sure that the only bitch here is you."

Stefan chuckled a little and rolled his eyes before telling her, "This doesn't mean that everyone you yelled at deserved it, but I can see why it would get annoying fast."

"How about this," She told him. "I'll only yell at people if you agree that they deserve it… I mean you were right about Caroline and her friends not being that bad, so…" She trailed off.

"Hold on," Stefan told her. "Go back. When exactly did this happen?"

"Last night," Rebekah responded. "Turns out you're quite easy to replace."

He cracked a grin at her teasing before he asked her, "So how long do you think that it will be before you let me live down that bitch comment?"

"Oh, that's never happening," She continued to tease. "I mean, unless you do something even worse that I decide to hold over your head instead."

"Perfect," Stefan responded. "At least I have that to look forward to."

* * *

When the school day ended and Rebekah walked outside to find her brother waiting in the parking lot, she could already tell that nothing good could possibly come from it.

"What do you think you're doing here?" She asked angrily, which only caused her brother to grow a smirk.

"Well _apparently_ people want to meet me," Klaus responded. "So here I am. Maybe now they'll leave you alone."

"Nik, don't," She told him. "I don't need your help."

"Who says that I'm not just doing this because of the chance to have hundreds of girls competing for my attention?" He questioned in an amused tone.

"I might have actually believed that when you first came in town, but now that you're obsessed with Caroline it's not very believable," She responded.

A crowd was already beginning to form a little ways away from where Klaus was standing, leaning against his car, so he spoke up loudly with, "I heard that some people here wanted to meet me."

Rebekah just rolled her eyes at her brother and walked away.

* * *

Caroline had been waiting for Elena and Bonnie to finish packing up their stuff, so by the time that the trio made it outside, the parking lot was already filled with people. Strangely enough, the people didn't seem to be making any effort to get to their cars or leave, they all just appeared to be crowding around something.

"What, did someone get into a fight again?" Bonnie questioned as she stared in awe.

"Well whatever's going on, there's no way that I can even get to my car, let alone out of this parking lot," Caroline replied.

As the girls got closer, they realized what the real source of the crowd was. It turned out to actually be Klaus, not a fight.

"I should have known," Caroline muttered. "Especially when it's right next to my car."

* * *

Half an hour later, the crowd had mostly dispersed and there were just a few girls left standing with Klaus. A few more brief minutes went by before those turned and headed towards their own cars.

"I didn't think that you were the waiting in line to see me type," Klaus commented with an arrogant smirk.

"Well that might have something to do with the fact that you made sure to block my car so that I couldn't leave in the meantime," Caroline responded.

"That's your car?" He asked in a tone of mock surprise.

"It sure is," She responded. "…So if I had to wait in line all this time, then can I at least get your phone number?"

"I don't really give it out, but I guess that I could make one exception," He responded. "As long as you swear not to give it out."

"Whoops," Caroline replied innocently. "I already wrote it all over a bunch of bathrooms next to 'Call Klaus for a good time'."

"So that's why I've been receiving all of these weird phone calls from strange men," Klaus played along with a grin.

"How come you never told me that you draw?" Caroline questioned him. "…Kol mentioned it."

"I'm sure he did," Klaus responded, not even a little bit surprised by that news.

"You have to show me one of your drawings," She told him.

"Why would I when you're already so impressed with my acting?" He responded in a light tone.

"Please?" She questioned, earning herself a chuckle from him.

"Well how can I say no to that?"

* * *

A few minutes later, Caroline and Klaus were standing in his house.

When he handed her a drawing of her, she stared at it in pure shock.

"Is the fact that you're being completely silent right now a good thing or a bad thing?" He questioned.

"It's…" She struggled to think of a word as she continued to stare at in awe. "It's beautiful." She looked up from it and turned to face him before asking, "Why didn't you tell me that you could draw like this?"

"I can be modest occasionally," He responded with a slight smirk.

" _Very_ occasionally," Kol added on his way through the room. "Besides, I hadn't seen him draw anything in forever until he started drawing you."

With that, Kol walked out of the house to go meet up with Jeremy.

* * *

The next day after school, Caroline was hanging out at the Mystic Grill with Tyler. Everything seemed normal and fun until she began to laugh at one of his jokes and he leaned in to attempt to kiss her.

She quickly turned her head away and stopped laughing.

Tyler had thought that he had needed to give it a try and that he had needed to know. But now that he did know, he found himself embarrassed and regretting the decision.

"Ty, I'm sorry," She said quietly. "I just..."

"It's because of Klaus, isn't it?" He asked, not meeting her gaze. "You like him, don't you?"

"No," Caroline quickly responded. "It has nothing to do with him. You're like a brother to me, Tyler."

"Ouch," Tyler muttered under his breath as he quickly stepped past her towards the exit.

"Tyler!" Caroline tried to call after him, but he was already gone.


	16. Chapter 16

Three days had gone by and Tyler still hadn't said a word to Caroline. She understood that maybe he needed his space, but she still couldn't help but worrying about him.

When they passed in the hallways or when lunch time came, Tyler would barely even glance her way and it was starting to drive her more than a little insane. She decided that if it lasted for much longer that she was going to have to confront him about it.

* * *

When Kol arrived at Jeremy's house, the other man was still wearing his work clothes since he had barely made it home from working at the Mystic Grill.

"I'm going to go take a quick shower before we go," Jeremy told him as the pair stood in his room. "Do you think that you can handle staying in here without breaking anything?"

"No guarantees," Kol responded with an innocent shrug and smile.

Jeremy seemed to take that answer as being good enough, since he left Kol there unattended anyways.

When Jeremy returned to his room a few minutes later with just a towel wrapped around his waist, Kol was lying comfortably on his new friend's bed.

Kol glanced over at where the other man was grabbing himself some clothes and instantly regretted it… Regret might not be the right word, since he couldn't quite make himself regret getting to see the few drops of water that had dripped from Jeremy's hair sliding along the bare muscles of his chest.

Kol quickly turned his gaze away and mentally scolded himself for thinking like that, especially about the only friend that he had in this town.

He hadn't had thoughts like that about another guy in a long time; his father had made sure of that after he had found Kol making out with another guy back in early high school.

But still, there was something about Jeremy that had brought those kinds of thoughts back to the surface. It probably had something to do with the way that Kol had been drawn to him like a magnet since the first time that the other man had said a single word to him.

"So where are we going?" Jeremy asked, causing Kol to sit up and look at him once again.

At least the younger man had pants on now, but his chest was still completely exposed and this time Kol was having a much more difficult time trying to convince himself to look away.

He knew that Jeremy was expecting him to answer, but he was having trouble forming a cohesive thought while the other man looked at him expectantly with his shirt sitting in his hand.

"I don't know," Kol responded dumbly as he tried to telepathically force Jeremy into putting his shirt on before the Mikaelson would end up doing something that he was going to regret later.

Several very long seconds went by before Jeremy finally began to move to pull his arms through the sleeves of his shirt. Unfortunately, it was already too late for that to do any good.

Kol had already lost control of himself and gotten up from the bed, not quite remembering when. He hadn't even realized that he was standing up until he was already standing in front of the other man, stopping him from pulling his shirt over his head with one arm as his lips brought themselves to Jeremy's.

As soon as he realized what he was doing, Kol instantly ripped himself off of the younger man and mumbled, "Shit, sorry."

He quickly turned to head for the bedroom door as he thought to himself just how goddamn stupid that had been.

Jeremy had no idea what to do or say as he stood completely still as his mind made a feeble attempt at catching up with what was going on.

Kol was halfway to Jeremy's bedroom when he froze in his tracks and told himself, "Fuck it."

He'd already screwed things up and if things were going to be awkward and ruined either way, then he wanted to at least get a real kiss out of it.

Before Jeremy even had the chance to react, although his brain didn't seem to be trying to do a whole lot of that anyways, Kol had crossed back across the room and brought one hand to grip the side of Jeremy's face.

As he kissed Jeremy this time, it wasn't a quick little peck like it had been the last time. Instead, Kol was going all out, pouring every ounce of emotion and lust that he had into it.

He was just about to pull away when Jeremy's hand suddenly came up to hold Kol's in place as he began to eagerly kiss back.

By the time that Jeremy's mind managed to whirr back into action, it was already too late to even try to deny to himself that he was more than enjoying this.

* * *

Caroline was sitting in the Mystic Grill, next to Klaus at a table with Elena and Bonnie. She was surprised by how well they were getting along, but didn't get to think about it for long before someone came and interrupted it.

Klaus could tell that there was something wrong the instant that he saw his youngest brother heading their way. Kol's whole demeanor was uncharacteristically serious.

"Have you seen this?" Kol asked as he shoved an open magazine in front of his half-brother. Kol had been able to clearly tell that Klaus hadn't seen it when he'd walked in, but he still had to ask.

Klaus looked down at the magazine article in front of him and froze, feeling the colour draining from his face and his breathing become laboured. The article was titled 'Does Klaus Morgan Think He Killed His Brother?'.

"It's everywhere," Kol said as he nervously watched his brother.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Klaus noticed that Caroline had grabbed hold of his hand, but he was too pre-occupied with staring at the article in front of him to really react to it.

As he skimmed through it, he saw that it claimed that it had gotten all of its information from one of Klaus Morgan's brothers. As he continued to skim he saw that there was everything about Henrik's death and the fact that the driver was his biological father.

Caroline saw Klaus tensing even further and gently squeezed his hand wishing that there was something, anything, more that she could do to help him. Instead, she just gripped his hand and watched him as he read.

As Klaus's eyes reached the bottom of the page, he was shocked to find a picture of himself and Henrik. He knew that he should be even more furious at Finn for giving the press any pictures of Henrik, but as he stared down at the picture, he actually felt a little bit of his anger dissipating. He hadn't looked at any pictures or any of Henrik's old stuff in so long because he had thought that it would only make things that much more difficult.

But instead of feeling worse, Klaus actually found himself developing the tiniest of smiles as he remembered the day that the picture had been taken, a few months before Henrik's death.

* * *

_It had been Kol's birthday and he had gotten a new camera, which he was effectively driving the majority of the family completely insane with._

_Rebekah had already run off and locked herself in her room in order to get away from Kol and his constant following her around taking pictures of her just to annoy her. Elijah and Finn had both humoured their younger brother, Elijah until Kol got bored and Finn until he got annoyed enough to threaten breaking the camera if Kol didn't leave him alone._

_Henrik seemed to be just as excited as Kol had been, following him around even after having already gotten his picture taken a few dozen times._

_When Kol began to ambush Klaus outside, the older Mikaelson had decided to go for the approach of completely ignoring Kol in the hopes that he would go away._

_It didn't appear to be working as Kol complained, "Come on, Nik. You could at least smile."_

" _I don't smile," Klaus responded, mostly just to get on his brother's nerves a little in return._

" _Come on, Nik," Henrik had said eagerly as he had run over to his favourite brother. "Take a picture with me."_

" _Fine," Klaus grumbled, making a show of sounding a lot more upset about it than he really was. "I guess I could take_ one _with you."_

_Klaus continued his show of being angry about it right up until the last second when Kol was about to take the picture._

_After the picture was taken, Henrik immediately ran over to Kol, wanting to get a look at the picture that he and his brother had just taken. When he saw the picture and the face that his brother had been making behind him, Henrik instantly turned back to look at Klaus._

" _That's not fair, you didn't tell me that you were going to make a stupid face," Henrik accused him. "I bet that I can make a funnier face than you can."_

" _Is that a challenge?" Klaus had asked him with a tilted smirk._

_The next five minutes were spent taking countless photographs of Klaus and Henrik making the worst faces that they could think of._

_When they finally stopped, too busy laughing to even try and think of another face, Kol went back through the pictures to show them just how absolutely hideous and ridiculous they had made themselves look._

" _My faces were funnier," Henrik had decided, seeming to think that he was the authority on the situation. "I win."_

" _Well that's just because you're funny looking," Klaus said, grabbing his youngest brother from behind and lifting him up into the air._

_Henrik had begun to giggle and shriek happily the instant that his feet had left the ground._

" _Put me down, Nik!" He shouted as he flailed about, laughing all the while._

_Klaus began to laugh along with him as he said, "I think we need a new contest, one that you don't get to judge… I'll race you to the park."_

_When he had put Henrik down, Klaus let him have a several second head-start before he had begun to chase after him, ultimately letting his little brother win the race whether he was faster or not._

* * *

"Finn's an ass, but at least he chose a good picture," Kol commented, hoping to ease at least a little of the tension. "He easily could have chosen one of those god-awful ones of you two trying to make the stupidest faces possible."

"I didn't even know that you took that," Klaus told his brother as he stared down at the image of himself holding Henrik, each of them with a big grin plastered on their faces.

"Well that's probably because you were a little distracted by the very loud, flailing six-year old in your arms," Kol commented in a slightly amused tone.

"True," Klaus agreed. He was glad to have Caroline's hand in his as he absent-mindedly stroked it.

Caroline was surprised by how well he was handling things as Klaus himself was surprised by the amount of relief that he felt at having people know. He had expected so much worse whenever he had considered the possibility of other people finding out about Henrik.

Klaus's feeling of relief at having people know was quickly destroyed before the day had even ended. He had grown far too used to being stared at and having a few brave people come up to attempt to ask him about it.

* * *

Less than a week had gone by before it became unbearable for Klaus, who very much regretted going to the school parking lot and ensuring that people felt comfortable approaching him whenever they felt like it. Sure, he was glad that he had helped his sister out, but having all of these teenage girls approaching him with questions and attempts at comforting him about what had happened with Henrik was beyond overwhelming. Besides, he hated being seen as some kind of weak, vulnerable creature. It was one thing to let him appear that way around Caroline and his family on occasion, but it was a completely different thing to have the whole town, and probably world, convinced that he was broken.

* * *

Caroline hadn't spoken to or seen Klaus since he had left the Mystic Grill after Kol had shown him the article. She was more than a little worried about him, even if his first reaction had seemed to be taking it surprisingly well.

She wanted to give him his space, since he hadn't seemed to have been seeking her out. Plus she didn't want to smother him or assume that it was her job to take care of him when, for all that she knew, he just wanted to remain with his family right now.

At the same time, giving him his space was hard and it was starting to wear away at her a little. She had been forced to stop herself from calling him or going over to his place several times and she found herself spending far too much time absorbed in her concerned thoughts about him.

She desperately wanted to make sure that he was okay, but at the same time didn't necessarily want to admit that she was checking up on him because she was afraid that he would get upset about her seeing his more vulnerable side once again.

But then again, maybe Klaus was just too proud to ask for help and was waiting in the hopes that she would go check on him.

Round and round Caroline's head went and yet she still couldn't make a decision on what to do.

Something had to be wrong, didn't it? After all, she hadn't seen Klaus for several days, which was more than a little rare.


	17. Chapter 17

A few more days passed before Caroline found herself at a party thrown by one of the girls on the cheerleading team.

Klaus had also been invited and had decided to come only since he knew that people would just assume the worst if he avoided being in public.

He hated the amount of attention that he had been getting since people had found out about Henrik, especially since it was clear that people pitied him. The idea of being seen as vulnerable was awful enough when it was with someone that he was comfortable around, but it was even worse when it was a bunch of strangers feeling sorry for him.

Rebekah hadn't been planning on attending the party, but had changed her mind when she discovered that Klaus and Kol were both going. She wasn't going to stay home from a high school party to avoid people while her older brothers were going. Besides, Stefan was going to be there.

* * *

Caroline scanned the crowded room in search of Klaus and Tyler, but couldn't catch sight of either of them. She did, however, spot Damon Salvatore making his way towards them.

Caroline quickly nudged Elena's arm before turning to Bonnie and saying, "Dance with me."

When Bonnie took Caroline's outstretched hand, the girls began to dance to a fast-paced song as they moved away from Damon and Elena to give them a little privacy.

* * *

The Mikaelsons had barely made it through the doorway before Rebekah spotted Stefan and ran off towards him, leaving Kol and Klaus to fend for themselves. They didn't seem to mind though as Kol led his older brother towards where he thought that the source of the alcohol was.

When Klaus spotted Caroline on the other side of the room, he smiled a little to himself and decided not to interrupt her. She seemed like she was a little occupied at the moment as she and Bonnie sang and danced, occasionally bumping into those around them.

* * *

As Caroline noticed someone standing on the other side of the room, she immediately stopped dancing.

"I'll be back," She told Bonnie before walking off in the direction of where she had caught a glimpse of the side of Tyler's head, walking past Jeremy on her way there.

As she reached Tyler, Caroline discovered that he was standing with a group of guys from the football team, including Matt.

"Ty, can I talk to you for a second?" She asked nervously. He hadn't spoken to her since the incident at the Mystic Grill.

"Yeah," Tyler said before leaving his group and leading her to a less crowded area.

When they stopped there was a seemingly long silence before they both began to speak up at once.

"Look I'm sorry-" She began as he admitted, "I overreacted."

Caroline felt relief wash over her as she told him, "I really am sorry… And I shouldn't have said that thing about you being like a brother to me."

A slight smile tugged at the corner of Tyler's lips as he commented, "You know, I can't really blame him for liking you."

"I already told you-" Caroline began before she was cut off.

"I know, you told me that there's nothing going on with him," He finished for her, despite the fact that he still didn't believe her, "which you don't have to say just for my benefit."

"I'm not," She assured him. "…So did this mean that we're okay?"

"Yeah," He told her with a smile. "We're okay."

Caroline returned the smile with her own bright one as she pulled him in for a hug. "Good."

* * *

Klaus was glad to find that, for the most part, people weren't swarming around him. It seemed that Kol had managed to use his status as Klaus Morgan's brother to grab the attention of a group of girls that he was sitting in the middle of and flirting with.

That suited Klaus just fine. He was perfectly happy sitting with Stefan and Rebekah, who had come back with her friend a few minutes after running off, and listening to the youngest Salvatore tell stories about some of the ridiculous things that his older brother had done.

* * *

By the time that Caroline returned to where Jeremy and Bonnie were chatting, Jeremy had already become hyperaware of Kol and the group of girls that he was flirting with.

Although Kol and Jeremy had hung out since that night in Jeremy's room, neither of them had discussed their kissing and there had been no repeat of the incident.

Jeremy had originally been relieved by that since he hadn't known how he felt. But now, as he watched the girls all laughing at something that Kol had said while he sported his flirty little smirk, Jeremy knew that there was no denying that it was bothering him.

He didn't want to watch Kol flirting with those girls anymore, so he walked towards the other man hoping that Kol would instead choose to hang out with him.

When Kol looked up to see his friend, he happily exclaimed, "Jer!"

* * *

Caroline had been dancing with Elena when she finally noticed Klaus standing across the room.

As she made her way towards him through the crowds, she heard a few different groups of people talking about the fact that Klaus was there and a few other's talking about his dead brother. At least they seemed to be keeping it to themselves instead of bothering Klaus with questions though.

When Caroline got close, Stefan and Rebekah left to go dance as Klaus walked over to her.

"How have you been?" She asked him. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

She had become so used to seeing him that a week without him was like a month in Klaus years.

"I'm alright," He responded with a shrug, causing her to raise a questioning eyebrow at him. "Although it's a little irritating having strangers looking at me like I'm a broken toy. And it's even worse when they start trying to ask questions about it, which people surprisingly haven't been doing tonight."

"Well I guess that's one good thing," She said with a smile, deciding against mentioning all of the people that she had overheard talking about him on her way over.

"And the fact that you're here is another one," He replied. Her smile brightened at that, causing him to grin. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Sure."

As he came back a minute or two later carrying a drink in each hand, they heard some guy ask one of his friends, "Didn't that guy like kill his brother or something?"

"Shut up, man!" The guy's friend responded angrily as he punched the first guy roughly in the arm.

Caroline stared concernedly at Klaus for a second before impulse took over. She grabbed the drinks out of his hands and set them down on the edge of the table before turning back to face him.

"People just need something else to talk about, right?" She asked before stepping on top of the table and pulling Klaus with her by the front of his shirt.

"What are you-" Klaus began to ask before she cut him off by pressing her lips against his.

By the time that he even realized what was happening, she had one hand buried in his hair and her other arm wrapped tightly around his neck. As he began to kiss her back, she opened her mouth to grant him further access.

Klaus didn't know if this was supposed to be all for show or not, but it sure felt convincing to him. And if this was just her trying to convince their audience, then Caroline was clearly a much better actor than he was.


	18. Chapter 18

A few of the nearby people began to cheer as Caroline slowly pulled her lips away from Klaus's, leaving her arms still wrapped around his neck. A few seconds passed as they tried to process what had just happened before either of them moved.

"Oh my god! … _Oh my god!_ Did I just- Why did I-" She stammered out as her grip on him loosened.

As he watched, Klaus realized that she seemed to be more surprised by her actions than he was.

"Caroli-"

"I have to go," She quickly interrupted him.

"What?" He asked, but she had already turned and stepped off of the table. "Caroline, wait!"

It was too late; she was already pushing her way through the crowd as she desperately tried to figure out why she had just done that. As she pushed her way past people, she heard a girl commenting, "If I'd known that you could just pull him onto a table and make out with him, then I would have done that the instant I spotted him."

Like that wasn't bad enough, she practically walked into Tyler as she finally began to near the exit. Caroline shot him a guilty look before she weaved through the crowd and pushed herself out of the doorway.

Klaus was still a little dazed as he got down off of the table, the question that he had wanted to ask Caroline still on the tip of his tongue. Was that kiss really all an act?

* * *

"Can I talk to you alone for a second?" Jeremy asked.

"Sure," Kol agreed as he got up from where he was sitting in the midst of a group of girls.

A minute or two later, the pair were standing in an empty hallway upstairs.

"Well, you've got me alone," Kol pointed out in his usual suggestive tone as a tilted smirk formed on his lips. "What are you going to do with me?"

Although he was acting like his usual flirty self, Kol was a little nervous that Jeremy was going to bring up the kiss and that things were going to become awkward between them. He was pleasantly surprised when rather than talking about the kiss, Jeremy kissed him again instead.

* * *

By the time that Monday came around, Caroline had already been avoiding Klaus for a few days. Well, she had mostly just stayed at home and avoided everyone. She had hoped that that way she wouldn't have to try and explain what had happened at the party to anyone when she still didn't understand it herself.

Unfortunately for her, it became clear that the time for avoiding the situation was over. The instant that Caroline walked into the school, Bonnie and Elena both began to smirk at her.

"So what's it like kissing a famous actor?" Bonnie asked in an amused tone, either not noticing or caring that Rebekah was standing at her locker and well within ear shot.

"I'm not talking about this right now," Caroline responded.

"We so knew that there was something going on between you two," Elena bragged.

"Didn't everyone?" Rebekah asked as she walked past the group on her way to her class.

"So are you two together or not?" Bonnie questioned once the girl was gone.

"I said that I'm not talking about this now," Caroline pointed out, mainly because she had no idea how to answer that question.

"Oh come on, you're the one who is always demanding details out of us," Bonnie pointed out.

"At least tell us if he's a good kisser or not," Elena added. "Then we won't bother you about it for the rest of the day."

"Fine," Caroline said, giving in as the slightest of smiles formed on her lips. "He's a ridiculously good kisser."

The fact that he was such a good kisser only made things more difficult. Caroline had told Klaus that nothing was going to happen romantically between them, she had told him that she couldn't handle getting involved with anyone who was just going to end up leaving like her dad had, and he had agreed to try for just friends.

The thing that annoyed her the most was that she couldn't even try and blame this on Klaus because he hadn't been the one who had made the first move. Sure he had been flirty, but she was the one who had really screwed up the friend thing. It was her own fault that she was in this mess right now.

Both of the other girls began to grin at her, thrilled that they had gotten at least some information out of their friend.

"So what exactly happened before you two started making out on a table?" Bonnie questioned.

"You're not allowed to ask me anymore questions about it until tomorrow, remember?" The blonde asked in a triumphant tone. "So I guess that you're just going to have to wait until then."

She was relieved when the bell rang loudly then. That meant that she could go to class and leave that conversation, at least for the time being.

"Well then be prepared to be completely bombarded by questions tomorrow," Elena joked as she closed her locker… Or at least Caroline hoped that she had been joking.

* * *

As Caroline was sitting in first class, her phone began to vibrate in her pocket and she quickly pulled it out since she was about ready to fall asleep from the documentary that they were watching anyways.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_I hear that I missed quite the display on Friday night._

* * *

Caroline had forgotten that Klaus's name was still the one that he had put in her phone while insisting on giving her his number. She made a mental note that she really needed to get around to changing that, yet she made no move to do so now. Instead, she frowned in confusion at the contents of the text, which didn't make much sense coming from Klaus.

* * *

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it's Kol. I got bored and stole Nik's phone again_

_So I take it that things are even more complicated between you two now._

**From Go to Hell:**

_What makes you think that I'd want to talk about this with you? Especially when I haven't even talked to Nik about it yet._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_You still haven't explained why your name is 'Go to Hell' in his phone._

_And you just called him Nik._

**From Go to Hell:**

_No I didn't. You did._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_So did you._

**From Go to Hell:**

_When?_

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

" _Especially when I haven't even talked to Nik about it yet."_

* * *

Caroline looked back through the texts that she had sent him and was surprised to find that he was right.

* * *

**From Go to Hell:**

_Oh._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Am I ever going to get an explanation on the contact name thing?_

**From Go to Hell:**

_Why don't you ask him?_

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Because he's asleep still. And I plan on deleting all of these texts and pretending that I never touched his phone before he wakes up._

**From Go to Hell:**

_It's not like you didn't see the contact name last time you took his phone. You could still ask without him knowing that you took it again._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_True, but last time he was too exhausted and distracted by nightmares to even get mad at me for taking it. Reminding him that I took it will only lead to a long and boring lecture and having to put up with cranky Nik._

**From Go to Hell:**

_What makes you so sure that I won't tell him that you took it again?_

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Just a feeling._

_Besides, I could tell him that you've been calling him Nik all the time behind his back._

**From Go to Hell:**

_So you could lie without proof._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_Other than that text._

**From Go to Hell:**

_Not if you've deleted the text before I tell him. Besides, that would just be proving that you stole his phone. Plus your whole plan is relying on the idea that I would care if you told him._

**From Irresistible Hunk I Want in My Bed:**

_I like you, Caroline._

_Damn, I can hear him getting up._

* * *

When Caroline arrived in her last class of the day, she timidly walked over to her regular seat next to Tyler. He'd said that they were okay now on Friday night, but that had also been before she had quite publicly kissed Klaus, which had been not very long after she had assured Tyler that nothing was going on between her and Klaus.

She was more than a little relieved when Tyler shot her a sheepish smile as she sat down beside him.

"Does that mean that you're not mad at me for kissing Klaus?" Caroline questioned.

"I'm not mad," He responded. "Not anymore. I already told you that you don't have to pretend that there's nothing going on with you two just for my benefit."

"I wasn't," She told him. "It was for my benefit. I'm just having a harder time pretending lately. I don't even know why I let myself kiss him."

"Sure you do."

Caroline didn't get the chance to respond to him before their teacher began to hand out tests to the class and the room went silent.


	19. Chapter 19

"Okay, so I know that I said that I wasn't going to talk to you guys about the Klaus thing today, but I changed my mind," Caroline said as she sat on the floor of her room with her two best friends, who both began to grin at her words. "Because I really need to talk to you guys about this."

Elena and Bonnie glanced at each other with matching grins.

"When I kissed him on Friday, I told myself that it was because I was trying to give people something else to talk about other than his dead brother," Caroline told them. "And I guess in a way it was because impulse just took over after hearing people talking shit. But the truth is that I kissed him because I wanted to, okay? I like Klaus. I really like him, even though I've tried so hard to keep myself from feeling this way about him and have tried so hard to deny it."

"You said that you needed our help, but it seems like you already have everything figured out," Bonnie commented.

"No, I don't," Caroline responded. "The whole reason that I've been resisting him so much is because I don't want to get involved with someone who is just going to leave. I'm already messed up enough from my dad leaving. And Klaus has known that since before I even agreed to be friends with him, but of course I had to go and screw _that_ up… But I guess that what I'm asking is if you guys think that I should give him a chance or keep trying to keep myself from getting hurt?"

Caroline picked at the carpet absentmindedly as she waited to hear their responses.

"It sounds like you're already a little too emotionally invested," Elena pointed out. "If he left tomorrow, you'd be hurt either way. I say go for it instead of torturing yourself."

"I agree with Elena," Bonnie told her. "If you give him a real chance, you might end up regretting it. But if you don't give him a chance and he leaves, you'll end up regretting it for sure."

"You guys are right," Caroline admitted. "Which means that I have somewhere to go before I lose my nerve and start over-thinking everything yet again."

"I wasn't aware you were capable of not over-thinking things," Bonnie teased with a laugh.

"Hey!" Caroline complained. She tried to look offended, but she couldn't help a smile from forming on her lips.

"She does have a point," Elena told her.

* * *

"I was starting to think that you were avoiding me," Klaus commented with a smirk when Caroline entered the Mystic Grill and instantly headed over to where he was already standing.

Kol, who had been standing with his brother next to the pool table, walked away to go sit with Jeremy instead.

"That's probably because I was," Caroline admitted. "I was avoiding everyone so that I wouldn't have to talk about what happened on Friday with anyone until after I'd over-thought about everything like a million times."

Klaus's lip twitched up in amusement as he commented, "It didn't seem that complicated to me." He took a step closer to her, purposely invading her personal space as he lowered his voice slightly and told her, "You kissed me because you desperately wanted to."

"You're right," She admitted.

As a look of surprise crossed Klaus's face, an amused smirk tugged at the corners of Caroline's lips. Her smirk grew into a teasing grin as she reached with her right hand to grab onto the collar of the front of his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss.

As soon as their lips were touching, her other hand found its way to the side of Klaus's head. He grinned into the kiss and moved his hands to grasp each of her hips while she ran her hand through the silkiness of his hair.

She had definitely been lying to herself when she had actually thought that she would be able to resist Klaus indefinitely, no matter how hard she tried.

When Caroline slowly pulled her lips away long enough afterwards that most, if not all, eyes in the Mystic Grill were focused on them, she kept as straight of a face as she could manage. Her poker face was certainly a change from the shocked reaction that she'd had the last time that she had kissed him.

Once their lips had parted, most of the people in the Grill went back to what they had been doing before, not paying any more mind to the pair. Only a few people glanced subtly back over at them.

Just as Klaus opened his mouth to speak, Caroline calmly removed her arms from him and took a step back and out of his grasp before turning around to walk towards the exit. She didn't make it more than two steps before her poker face cracked, but she was still walking away from him, so he had no way of telling.

"Walking off again?" He questioned in a mildly amused tone. "Really?"

Caroline slowed her pace, but didn't stop walking, as a wry grin formed on her lips.

"Oh, I see. So everything has to be on your terms then," he commented.

She had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from laughing as she stopped walking.

"Well, I am a control freak," She commented as she turned back around so that he could see her wide smile.

"Hmm, that might be a problem," he pointed out.

She arched her brow at him. "Really?"

"Yes, see. I'm a bit of a control freak myself," Klaus confessed. "That might make for a difficult relationship."

"You're right," she taunted. "I should just change my mind about you, right?"

Klaus looked surprised as he questioned, "So you came here looking for a relationship?"

"Yeah and I didn't think you of all people would be trying to talk me out of it," she told him.

"Oh, believe me. I am not trying to talk you out of this," Klaus assured her. "I knew you couldn't resist me."


End file.
